Rise of Nightmayr
by furretts
Summary: The Night Dimension is falling apart, and a new ruthless leader has taken Wizeman's throne. On top of the new power threatening the dream world, children are starting to disappear from the waking with no evidence of force. With the help of NiGHTS, Juliet must reunite friends in order to stop Nightmayr's plans for Nightopia.
1. Chapter 1

_**READ THIS!**_

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**the link above is some important background info that id recommend reading since most of it will not be explained in the story clearly!**

The once warm and calm air of the night dimension had been blown away, replaced by a bitter chill that could freeze an ideya. Much time has passed since any visitor had ventured in, and the dream world was falling apart at the seams.

No one came anymore. The ground of the dream gate had not been walked upon by humans for months now. Or was it years? Time went by so quickly in the dream world.

The gate of dreams was old and rusted. Doors were falling apart, the ground was breaking apart and falling into the dark ocean, and worst of all, it was lonely.

But why? What had happened all this time? It had been too long. Why was the dream world sad? That is what NiGHTS wanted to find out.

The nightmaren flew around every part of the Dream Gate looking for a sign, a wish, a sign of _hope. _They came empty handed in the end like always.

NiGHTS flew over to the pond, where was the hope they needed? Could it have fallen to the bottom of the pond? What did hope even look like? It was a bright yellow light they knew, but is it more than just an object? When NiGHTS looked into the pond, all they saw was their reflection. They wanted answers… not themself. Or _were_ they the answer? That face that looked back at them, is this the hope had sunk to the bottom? Or is was it what brought destruction to the surface? Was it hope that led to the downfall of dreams, or was it the destruction giving birth to hope? Confusion began to cloud the jesters mind.

A feint flapping sound echoed on the small island, and a cooing that anyone could recognize.

"Hoo, well I never would have expected to see you here." Owl intruded, in a rather sarcastic tone to the jester.

NiGHTS didn't respond, they just continued to stare deep into their reflection in the pond. It had been so long since they had gotten a good look at themselves, what they truly were that is. A nightmaren, created to destroy the dreams of humans. NiGHTS wanted to protect those dreams, or so they thought. Could they really have unintentionally been the cause of this?

"Don't look too far, you might fall in." The elderly bird hooted, brushing his feathers against NiGHTS' body.

Owl had managed to break NiGHTS out of their trance, and the nightmaren could only respond with a worried expression.

"Hoo, I say! This isn't like you at all! Not even a snarky remark, hm? Well then something most certainly is troubling you. Go on, talk to me please, you're the only one who does anyway."

NiGHTS shrugged a bit, not really having anything to say.

Owl was right, this was not like them. The nightmaren knew they would run out of happiness eventually, they've given off so much to others, but what were they getting in return? Even the gem on his chest had lost its luster, and the sparkles in the jesters eyes had disappeared as well.

"Do not blame yourself, young one. We all knew this would happen eventually. Humans just don't have time for dreaming anymore, so many are crushed so young… so very young. This place wasn't created to last forever…" Owl's eyes squinted towards the nightmaren with sadness, this was obviously a sensitive subject for the bird.

NiGHTS' eyes lit up suddenly, and the old familiar glow in their eyes returned. "You're right, Owl! Nothing is ever created to last forever. But that's why it's so important to spend the time you have with happiness, and friends!" The nightmaren flew up around the dream gate, just has he had done when they first sought refuge on the little island. This was no time to be feeling sad, the dream gate only had so much time left, why spend it in sadness? They needed to enjoy the last moments this nostalgic utopia had for them.

There was still one question ringing in the nightmarens head. The question from the very beginning.

_What had caused this?_

**A/N hello! first off, this is a story ive been writing for my friend, but i want to be involved in the community more so i figured eh why not post it. (also bc if people actually like this it might help me write more. ive been kinda slacking and i feel bad haaa) **

**if you havent read the link at the top yet, i highly recommend doing that now.**

**anyway, before posting anymore i want to know if people are actually interested in this! it will probably be a fairly long fanfic containing both canon and fan characters, including a tiny bit of relationship between canon and fan possibly unless i edit it out in the public version. it will contain a LOT of LGBTQIA characters so if that makes you uncomfortable****_ good_**** go cry more. **

**cover photo was drawn by transmad0ka on tumblr! ill probably draw my own official cover for this if people want me to post more (i have around 5 chapters written so far?)**


	2. Chapter 2

**decided to post the first Real chapter of this fic to get more of an idea of it.. also reviews are very nice thank u**

**some chapters are longer than others but I personally have a very hard time reading long walls of text but I understand other people LIKE longer chapters so ill try to keep a balance. **

**i have a charahub with profiles of all the characters/ocs which ill post later once more characters are introduced.**

**not really sure what else to say so... onto the story**

Juliet Evans blinked her eyes open from her sleep. Sitting up, she stretched her arms up to the sky, groaning a bit. Looking over to her calendar, she saw it was September 19th, the day before her birthday.

Great, another birthday. Just what she needed.

Juliet's birthdays were never good. She hated being surrounded by her family, who she knew would never really accept her for being what she was. Weird. Juliet didn't have any friends, so no one ever came to her parties when she was younger. She was 15 now though, no need for parties. She figured she'd go out to dinner, open a few useless presents, and then go home and sleep, nothing special.

Getting of bed, the teen dressed herself for the day, brushed her teeth and threw her backpack around her shoulder, which was very lightweight considering she kept all her study materials at school. She even kept her uniform in her locker, she was too scared to bring it home in fear she might lose part of it.

Skipping breakfast, Juliet began on her lengthy walk to school. The sun was just peaking over the houses in her neighborhood, and the sky was a beautiful orange color.

Then Juliet's superstitious side kicked in. She looked behind her shoulder very frequently on her walk, speeding up her pace even if she confirmed there was no one behind her. But she could feel someone stalking her every move.

After the long treacherous walk to school, Juliet still managed to get there early like always. She darted into the safety of the building and began to head to her locker on the second floor to get her uniform.

It was weird, nobody seemed to be at school. The hallways were empty, all the classroom doors were locked with the lights turned off, even the lights in the hall were flickering like a horror movie budget.

_Don't tell me it's a Saturday…_

Just then, Juliet heard a loud scream ring throughout the hall. Paper began to fly everywhere and the classroom doors swung open. On instinct, the teen dropped to the ground and covered her head with her arms and shut her eyes. She peeked one eye open as several dark figures escaped from the classroom.

_Are they coming towards...me? _

The figure flew at top speed towards the cowering teen, picking up more papers as they rushed by. Juliet picked herself up and began running in the opposite direction through the school. The ghostly figures were still on her track, and she thought the chase would never end.

Before the teen had a chance to give up, a bright light shined at the end of the hallway, and it was calling her. Juliet turned around to see the ghosts turning around and fleeing from the light, and now forward seemed to be the only option. She took a step closer to the light...and closer… and closer...until the brightness had completely absorbed the teenagers body.

When the teen awoke she found herself in a mysterious area, much like one in a video game or… a dream? She picked herself off the ground and observed the area a bit closer. It looked a courtyard of some sort, it had a large fountain in the middle that no longer spouted water, and around it were thick woods.

Juliet walked around a bit, a bit confused as to where exactly she was. The curious teen began to venture outside of the courtyard and walked into the surrounding woods. She came across a rather large pond with thick, dark water splashing around from the wind. Juliet frowned as she gazed into deep pool, and her reflection wavered with the current.

_Leave now._

Juliet's heart jumped as a voice rung in her head.

"H-Hello?" The teen stood up, brushing her skirt a bit and looking around. Her head was turning in every direction like a deer being hunted.

_There's no hope for this pitiful land._

She heard the voice again. It was a raspy voice, but it still sounded somewhat young, it gave her a chill down her spine.

She began to pick up her pace, running back to the area with the fountain. She could hear her heart beat pound in her ears as she ran. But why was she running? She felt as if someone was… _following her._

_**Wake UP!**_


	3. Chapter 3

**happy birthday 2 me! what a perfect time to post the next chapter. happy birthday 2 my darling angel juliet too. in my original document for this is actually 2 chapters but,, i want to make the chapters longer so i mushed them together. **

**note on alaia; they are agender and use they/them pronouns. i dont have a reference for them right now but i will soon!**

Juliet woke up with a startle. She turned over in her bed to face her alarm clock, which was flashing '5:00' in her face. She groaned as she sat in bed and let out a big yawn, stretching her arms up to the ceiling.

"So it was just… a dream." Juliet mumbled, turning back to her alarm clock. It felt too real, in a way she couldn't understand or explain. She shook her head as she swung her legs over the side of her bed, not wanting to think too hard about it.

Juliet once again went through her morning routine. She managed to get to school in time to change into her uniform, and even study a bit too before first period. She kept her books close to her chest as she began to walk quickly down to the library.

On the way down, Juliet bumped into another student, dropping all of her books on the floor, as well as herself.

"Ah-! I-I'm sorry! I wasn't paying attention to where I was going, I'm really sorry!" Juliet looked up, only to make direct eye contact with a junior at her school. She had two long, mousy blonde, curly pigtails that hung down to her lower back. Her face was small, with two round pink colored eyes, and right now, those eyes did not show kindness in them.

"Maybe if you would walk with you eyes up instead of staring at everyones chests all the time, you would have seen where you were going. Keep your eyes up next time, freak." The junior scowled, walking right past Juliet without saying anything else.

Juliet frowned, the school year only just started. It was her second year in high school, but it still felt so new to her. The teen was so lost in thought, she forgot she was still sitting on the floor until another student came over to her.

"Hey, you okay?" He asked, reaching his hand out to help her up.

"Oh! Y-yeah. Sorry, believe it or not I forgot I was down here in the first place." She stuttered, grabbing his hand as the student pulled her off the ground.

"Yeah that happens to me too sometimes." The boy laughed as he bent over to pick up her books. "Here," he said handing them over to Juliet, "be careful next time, okay?" Juliet nodded, taking her books back and tightly hugging them to her chest again.

"Anyway, I-I should be going to class now. Thank you!" She said rather fast paced, quickly turning around and running down the hall, wanting to avoid any further conversation and confrontation with anyone.

"It was so weird, I can't explain it." Juliet whispered to her friend Alaia. "It was like I was there! I could feel things, I could hear things, it was all just too vivid!"

"Sometimes you make yourself think that when you wake up. Happens to me all the time." Alaia shrugged, not really knowing what to say. "Tell ya what," they leaned in closer to their friend, "Lemme know if it's recurring. This could make for an interesting project on my part."

Juliet smiled and nodded. Alaia was always into weird things and supernatural events. They've never _actually_ had one happen to them, but one time they did claim there was an evil spirit hiding in their toaster. Turns out the heating just got all messed up, and they had to get a new one before their house burnt down.

Juliet managed to get through the rest of the day easily. Alaia offered to walk their friend home, but she wanted to be alone for a bit.

As soon as Juliet got home, the first thing she did was run upstairs, plop down on her bed and picked up a magazine. She flipped through the pages, ripping out every makeup sample she came across, until she dozed off.

A week passed. Nothing changed. Juliet's birthday came and went, and it was just like any other birthday. She was glad though, Juliet didn't like change. If her parents were to throw her some huge party all of the sudden, she wouldn't even be able to enjoy it.

It's not like her parents were neglectful, she had good parents who cared about her a lot. Juliet's an only child, or 'the practice child'. They're still learning how to be good parents, but it's hard when you don't have the money to do it.

The weekend went by fast. Saturday felt like it never happened, and at this point Juliet couldn't wait to get back to school and talk to Alaia.

It was Sunday night, which meant she would get to see Alaia tomorrow, and that's all she cared about. Juliet layed in her bed and stared at the ceiling until her eyes closed, and she was drifted off into her sleep. When the teen opened her eyes, she found herself in the familiar courtyard she was in a week ago exactly. Something felt different this time, though…. it all looked the same but it still felt different.

Noise.

That was it! There was noise. Water to be exact. The fountain seems to have begun to spout water again, and it was beautiful. It really brought the area together, and made it seem less lonely. This little fountain changed so much, and it even brought a smile to Juliet's face.

"Hoo! Well I'm glad you like it, Visitor, it was your doing after all." A voice cooed behind the dreamer. She turned around to see a rather plump owl flapping it's wings in her face.

"My… doing?" Juliet questioned, turning back around to look at the now-working fountain. She wasn't even questioning the talking owl at this point.

"Exactly. You see, this place hasn't been visited by a human in ages! Because of that, well, it began to fall apart you see. Not having the dreams of your kind to hold it together. You managed to bring an entire fountain to life just by placing your foot on this path, your heart must desire something greatly, Visitor."

Juliet looked down, holding her hand close to her chest. She did desire something, but she never thought it would be that important.

"Where is 'this place', anyway? I woke up here last week too, but I forgot about it until just now coming back."

"My dear, you did not 'wake up' here! You're still asleep, dreaming to be exact. This is the Night Dimension, the place you are in now with me is known as the gate of your dreams. You may refer to me as Owl, I help visitors who seem to have lost their way here, and you, my dear, are one of those visitors." The owl said, with pride, as if he hasn't said that line in years.

"I'm dreaming? But it all feels so real… you seem so real." Juliet pointed her finger at the owl, but as her hand was raised up, a bright red light blinded her vision for a few seconds. She immediately lowered her hands and placed them over her face.

"My, my… it's been so long since I've seen that beautiful light…" A different voice chuckled behind the two. It was a colder voice, less calming than the owls tone.

"R-Reala!" Owl shuddered as he spoke the name. "Leave, now! You nightmaren aren't allowed in the gate of dreams!"

"Hmph. You still care so much about this worn-down place? Fine. It has no use to me." Reala held his hand out to the confused dreamer, "I want that Ideya."

"My name is_ Juliet_…" She stammered. Owl brushed his feathers against the dreamer, signaling for her to follow him. The two quickly ran to a door that had appeared within the courtyard.

This wasn't here before… Juliet thought to herself, but that didn't matter to her. What was that thing chasing after her? And why did they call her Ideya? None of this made sense to her.

The door opened up to a beautiful open paradise. There was a large lake, taking up most of the surface, and fields of lilac flowers that were just blooming. The air felt new, and clean. Juliet opened her arms to feel the sea breeze against her skin.

"Quickly!" Owl's apprehensive voice startled the visitor out of her trance. "Reala is not too far behind, we must protect your Ideya at all costs!"

She still didn't know what an Ideya was, but she figured now was not the best time to ask. That thing was after the two of them for some reason, and getting caught was the last thing she wanted to do.

"Alright, old timer." Reala growled, clawing up flowers from the ground to let out steam, "If it's Hide and Seek you want, it's Hide and Seek you'll get." With a whistle, several black holes opened up from the ground, releasing several other monsters into the air.

"Those are nightmaren…" Owl whispered into Juliet's ear. The two were laying down in the largest patch of lilacs they could find. "It's been forever since I've seen them, I'm surprised nightmares are still living this much…" he trailed off with a sad tone.

Juliet watched with horrified eyes as all these nightmarens poured out, coming for her…?

"That's enough, Reala!" A new voice shouted, not too far away. Out flew a similar figure to that of Reala, but they seemed more cheerful and bright than the cold nightmaren.

"Phah, NiGHTS. It was only a matter time before you showed up, traitor." Reala growed, his sharp teeth biting his lip in anger.

"That's right, Reala! You know you missed me!" The jester, named NiGHTS, giggled happily. "And I missed you too! Come on Reala, let's go!" Their face looked more serious now.

"Another time, NiGHTS. I was hoping no one would get in my way, but I'm afraid I was wrong. I'll see you soon, visitor." Reala called out loud enough so Juliet could hear, and she shuddered.

When NiGHTS was positive Reala had left, they turned around and called out. "It's safe now, they're gone."

Juliet stood up with Owl, both were a little shaken from the events.

"I've never seen him so persistent on hunting a visitor before… I wonder if the lack of dreams lately is effecting Nightmare as well…" NiGHTS was hovering in the air, staring down at the young dreamer and the owl. They floated down, extending their arm out to Juliet, "Well I'm certainly glad to see a friendly face here. My name is, NiGHTS!"

"I'm Juliet," the teen did a small curtsy when introducing herself to the jester.

"Say, the air in this Nightopia is pretty nice, it's been a while since I've been able to fly in such an open area!" NiGHTS bubbled, flying a figure-8 in the sky.

Juliet looked around the area again, there were mountains in the distance, and the sea was still calm and bright. She looked back towards Owl, who was smiling as he watched NiGHTS flying around. "Nightopia?" She finally asked.

"Nightopia is a world created by a visitors ideya. There are 5 ideya all together, purity, courage, wisdom, growth and hope, the ideya you've managed to hold onto is your red ideya of courage, a very special trait indeed. These ideya come from your inner heart, they are what give this dimension life, and without them, well, you've seen."

There was so much Juliet didn't understand. Another dimension? Ideya? Nightmaren? It almost seemed like a fantasy story to her.

"This place we are in now is Nightopia!" NiGHTS cheered, still flying around above the two. "It's a beautiful paradise where visitors dream in! Every Nightopia is different, and they all reflect a visitors deepest desires and heart."

"So, that red guy...Reala? He was after this Ideya? _My_ Ideya?" NiGHTS and Owl both fell silent. You could only hear the wind blowing against the lilacs as they brushed against each other.

"You see, Juliet." NiGHTS voice dropped into a serious tone, it was a major change from the cheerful vibe the jester was giving off, even when Reala was threatening them. "No visitors have come for a long time. People stopped dreaming, and the life from Nightopia is being drained away. And now I'm sure of it, the Nightmarens are behind it, they've been planning it since the beginning. Reala is afraid you could change all of this destruction, and I think they're right."

"M-me? No, no that can't be… I'm pretty weak, and I don't have any dreams! This was all a mistake!" Juliet stammered. She took a few steps back away from the jester, who was still flying closer to her.

"Hm… maybe not alone." NiGHTS sat in the air and thought for a minute. Owl and Juliet waited patiently for the jester to make their statement. "It would be hard, but I need a favor, Juliet."

"A favor? What is it, NiGHTS?" The dreamer asked, she seemed to be finally calming down.

"I don't know how to explain it… but I feel something from you. People…. close by. Very close. It's been a long time…" NiGHTS seemed to be forgetting they were talking to Juliet, and trailed off into a mutter. Or was it NiGHTS? There was a loud ringing in Juliets ear which began to block out everything NiGHTS was telling her, even her vision began to become blurry.

"Find them… close by…. the two… in the past…forgotten..."

Everything NiGHTS was saying had been completely blocked out by the ringing. Everything went black, and Juliet could feel her body moving under the covers of her bed. But the last thing NiGHTS told her still stuck.

Find them.


	4. Chapter 4

"_Hey...NiGHTS?" _

"_Huh? What is it, Claris?" _

"_How big is the night dimension?"_

"_Hmm… well it depends how you see it."_

"_What does that mean?"_

_The jester chuckled, "Oh, I don't know. I'm actually not quite sure myself, there are places not even I'm allowed to go to."_

"_Really? I thought you knew _everything _about the dream world!"_

"_No, I like to pretend I do, though." NiGHTS smiled, thinking to themself how much more there is to learn. _

_It was silent for a moment, and Claris waited while NiGHTS was deep in thought._

"_I have heard from the nightopians there used to be some type of dream plaza, where dreamers could roam and spend time together within each others dream."_

_Claris giggled, "You speak nightopian?"_

"_You don't?" The nightmaren joked back. Looking away from the dreamer, NiGHTS crossed their arms and began to think more. "It's just a story I've heard though."_

"_You said used to be… if it was real, what do you think happened to it?" _

"_You ask a lot of questions, has anyone ever told you that?" _

_Claris looked down, her face turning red. _

_NiGHTS sighed and held their hand out to the girl, "Come on, let's go fly around. I hear theres a secret underground cavern with lots of treasures!"_

"_Let me guess, you heard it from the nightopians?" Claris smiled up at the inviting jester, taking their hand as the two assimilated together._

* * *

The Nightmaren General returned to their realm, frustrated and once again empty handed. They feared facing their leader, it was different from facing Wizeman. If Wizeman was displaced, he only threatened his creations, only occasionally harming mere 2nd levels. Nightmayr was different, he was ruthless and brutal, even the tiniest scratches on a maren's gem caused to worst pain imaginable, and Nightmayr enjoyed watching them crumble to the ground.

Nightmayr resided in a large gothic castle in the Night Dimension. The main courtyard of Nightmare was a large open area, the ground appeared to be a thick fog that was able to be walked upon by those who couldn't fly. There were dark pathways that led to the outermost edges of the realm where the second levels resided.

Second-level domains were very hidden, usually. They all resided deep into Nightmare, but could have entrances anywhere. Nightmarens hide their entrances usually inside the Nightopia of a visitor, through the entrance they can easily turn any dream into a horrifying nightmare.

Reala flew to the large archway door of Nightmayr's castle. He was apprehensive of knocking on it, but he knew he had to get the meeting over with. Reala flew back as the large door opened.

The interior was dark. The entrance was a smaller area, with two curved staircases leading to a balcony. Overhead was a large chandelier which black and purple tinted candles. It was beautiful to look at it, but it also gave Reala the chills a nightmaren should never get. Below the balcony, on the same level as the entrance were two more doors which led to a large ballroom. Reala wondered why a king of nightmares would need a ballroom, but he figured it was for the aesthetic pleasure.

Reala flew up to the balcony, where there was a large throne, meant for Nightmayr. There were two more staircases on either side, leading to the rest of the castle which Reala had never seen before.

There was a voice from the left stairway, which made Reala jump.

"Here so soon, Reala? I figured it would take you much longer to retrieve that ideya." Another Nightmaren flew down and sat in the throne. He was a longer shape than Reala, with a white jester-like hate that curved into horned with a red and black striped pattern. His appearance was similar to that of NiGHTS and Reala, Wizeman's two most successful creations, or so they everyone thought. Nightmayr leaned on his hand, tapping his long claw-like fingers against his face, which had several markings on it.

"W-well, yes, you see Master Nightmayr about that…" before Reala could defend himself, Nightmayr growled loudly. Reala could tell by the look on Nightmayr's face that he wasn't going to hear the end of it from his leader.

"_You didn't get it, did you?_" The leader hissed, sitting up in his throne and grabbing the two arm rests tightly.

"It wasn't that simple, Nightmayr! I knew I felt the presence of an ideya, but when I found the dreamer, she had already entered Nightopia." Reala clenched his hands into a fist.

Nightmayr flew up from his throne and leaned in closer to Reala. "There's something else you're not telling me, Reala. Spit it out."

"W-well if you must know… the ideya was a red ideya…"

"Yes? And?"

"None of us can...take it. It's the strongest ideya, only Wizeman himself can-"

There was a loud scream of anger. Nightmayr slapped Reala across the face, and the red and black jester fell to the ground.

"I'm sorry, Nightmayr. I don't know what to do. The visitor has found NiGHTS, they could ruin everything!"

Nightmayr was about to give another blow to Reala, but he stopped himself. This was just what he wanted, he could read NiGHTS like a book.

"No no, Reala. This… is perfect." The look on Nightmayr's face showed his malevolent intentions. Reala stepped back from the powerful jester, and bowed once more. He was still shaking, and he had never felt more anxious in his long life.

"Just tell me what you need me to do, Master…"

* * *

Another morning routine went by, except this time Juliet actually had breakfast. Though it was a small change, it was enough to impact Juliet's mood.

She arrived to school early like normal, changed into her uniform in the bathroom and headed to first period, taking her seat next to Alaia. Alaia's hair was more frizzy than normal, they looked as if they had been tossing and turning all night. Their hair was sticking up all over the place, their uniform was untucked and unbuttoned, and they were laying their head on their desk, chewing on a pencil.

Juliet moved her chair closer to her friend, nudging them awake. Alaia, startled, fell out of their chair and onto the floor. There were a few chuckles from the back of the room.

"Sorry, I guess I didn't get much sleep last night." Alaia frowned, standing back up and starting to fix their uniform.

"Really? I didn't notice." Juliet laughed a bit while she stood up and buttoned up Alaia's shirt for them.

The bell went off, and all the students took their seats as they prepared themselves for the longest 40 minutes of their lives. Some fell asleep, some were extremely attentive, and some were just doodling the entire time. Juliet, however, was day dreaming about Nightopia. She thought about the beautiful fields of lilac next to the sea. She could almost feel the wind blowing now.

Juliet was back in her Nightopia, skipping around and playing with the Nightopians that inhabited it. Everything was peaceful. Suddenly the Nightopians murmured to each other, and began to fly away. Juliet, confused, called to them, but they just kept flying. She turned around frowning, but lifted her eyes up to see another ghost-like nightmaren in front of her. It grinned, and rushed to her, startling the day dreamer, and sending her back to reality.

"Juliet! Juliet!" It was the voice of her teacher, "Please, read the next paragraph for us, that is if you can focus enough to do it."

Juliet looked around at the rest of the class, everyone was staring at her. She began to feel a little embarrassed, and looked down at the packet in front of her. "R-right. The next paragraph... which is?"

Her teacher gave a stern look, and for a moment Juliet thought she noticed a change in his eye form, "See me after class."

The bell rung to dismiss the students, and Juliet, hoping to sneak out in the crowd, was stopped by her teacher. She sighed, put her head down and walked over to the front desk. She heard the 'click' of the door being closed, and she was ready for whatever conversation they were about to have.

"So… what did you want?" Juliet asked, looking up at her teacher. He was facing the blackboard, but he wasn't writing anything.

Juliet stepped forward, and peered over a bit to see more, and almost as if it was on cue, her teacher turned around with a malicious grin.

_ "I want your Ideya."_


	5. Chapter 5

Juliet screamed as her teacher turned into a nightmaren before her. It looked similar to Reala, but with a white and black color scheme with a big cloud-like skirt. It's eyes were hollow, with little pink star-like pupils.

It rushed towards her, knocking over desks and pencil containers. The noises were so loud, she figured someone would have to hear.

Was she dreaming? She had to be, how else could a nightmaren be here, did they exist in the waking world too? It was all so real. It _was_ real. It had to be.

The nightmaren chased Juliet around the classroom for a good minute. It was clawing at her, even managing to tear the back of her uniform. Papers were flying all over the place, desks were being smashed together, and Juliet couldn't tell how loud it was over the sound of her screaming.

After some time, the nightmaren became tired, and so did Juliet. She stumbled over her own weight and fell hard to the ground, blacking out. When she came to once again, she was still in the same classroom but the nightmaren had vanished. Her vision took a while to fix itself, but when it did she looked up and saw a familiar face, holding a hand out to help her up.

"You sure do fall down a lot. How long have you been here?" It was the same boy who had helped her in the hallway. She took his hand and got up on her feet, still a little shaken from the encounter.

"I'm not really sure… I think I blacked out."

"What? How come?" Juliet wasn't really sure how to answer that. Did no one hear the commotion? Did she really just imagine the whole event? No, by the way the classroom appeared, it _definitely_ happened.

"I-I think I slipped when leaving first period and hit my head." Juliet lied, coming to the conclusion that no one had heard the loud chase.

The other looked around the classroom, a bit confused. "All this from a fall? And no one came to help you? The door was locked, you know."

Juliet looked around the classroom too, they were the only two in there. Even the hallways were empty, everyone else was still in second period.

"Then… how did you get in?" She asked, even more confused than before.

The boy's cheeks turned bright red, and he looked down a bit. "I was on my way to the main office when I noticed something about this room wasn't right… and when I looked in a saw you on the floor and the door was locked. I kinda broke in, actually."

"How did you do that?" Juliet was surprised, she never thought someone would go that far to make sure she was okay. It gave her a comfortable feeling knowing this, though.

"Sometimes the locker rooms are still locked up. And when no teachers are around... I guess over time I just taught myself how to do it." He shrugged, his cheeks still red.

The bell went off, and the boy grabbed Juliet's arm and dragged her out of the classroom as the other students filed out of their classes.

"That place is a wreck, I wouldn't wanna be caught standing in there if I were you. The school could get you in some serious trouble." Juliet nodded as the two headed further down the hallway, stopping right by the stairwell.

"You look a little pale, are you feeling okay?"

Juliet jumped a little, almost forgetting the boy was with her, not really used to people walking with her, and a but surprised someone was putting up with her for this long. "Not really, actually," this was the first time she's told the truth in a while.

"Well I'd figure after you've been on the ground for about 40 minutes. Want me to walk with you to the nurse? I have to go that way anyway, and I don't want you to faint…"

Juliet smiled and nodded. "Sure, if you don't mind that is." She didn't want to give anyone any trouble, or put all of hers on another person. She figured they were both going the same way though, so either way they'd be walking together.

The two made it to the nurses office, Juliet was already feeling a little better, but she still wanted to lay down for a bit and maybe have her mom come pick her up. She knew her mom would be angry at her for wanting to leave school, but after that encounter with the nightmaren she doubted she could get through the rest of day.

"Thanks," Juliet didn't have much to say, she didn't really know _what _to say. The only other person she talks to Alaia.

"No problem, feel better okay?" He had a concerned look on his face, and Juliet didn't understand why.

_Nah, I'd be concerned too if I saw an unconscious student laying in the middle of a destroyed, locked room. _Juliet thought to herself, laughing a bit at how ridiculous that would sound to anyone else.

Before she'd went inside to check in with the nurse, a group of boys down the hall seemed to notice the two and starting shouting.

"Yo, Taylor! Over here!" They were shouting, making flaunting hand gestures.

Juliet peered over to see the group, "Are those your friends?" She asked, a bit anxious with all the people now staring at them.

"Yeah I guess. I should go." He looked back hesitantly and started walking towards the group. Juliet shrugged, feeling too exhausted to think about anything and went inside the health office to lay down.

Something was bothering her. What happened to her teacher? Was her teacher that nightmaren the whole time? Most of her questions before were answered, but new ones just keep springing up.

* * *

"Lord Nightmayr, please forgive me." The cloud like nightmaren said in a fearful tone as it lowered itself into a respectful bow. Its eyes were shut, not wanting to see the displeased look upon Nightmayr's face.

"This is the second time one you worthless lower levels have failed me. How could you let the Ideya get away?"

The bowing maren looked up at Nightmayr, who was sitting in his throne clenching both of his fists. It's once hollow eyes were now filled, with a bright pink iris.

"Nightmayr please-"

"I told you to never call me that!" The nightmare leader bellowed, hitting the lower on the top of its head hard. "You have no right to speak my name so informally, you filthy reject!"

"My apologize, I had forgotten my Lord…"

The nightmaren picked itself up, giving a final bow in apology for its informality. Nightmayr had seemed to calmed down and was relaxing back in his throne, tapping his silver claws on the armrest. The lower began to float away slowly, hoping to avoid any more wrath from the leader, but was quickly summoned back.

"Rachael, why are you leaving so soon?" Nightmayr grinned, but in an angry sort of way. Rachael froze and slowly turned to look back. "You were not done with reporting, I can tell. You can't hide anything from me."

Rachael flew back, again lowering herself beneath the leader and continued in a fearful and nervous tone. "There is another ideya… I felt its presence when I was with the girl, it was much stronger than hers. I fled before I was found by anyone else."

Nightmayr chuckled to himself, his eyes moving to the side, avoiding Rachael's nervous gaze. "Just what I wanted. That girl is doing all our dirty work for us, NiGHTS is clueless."

"E-excuse me?" Rachael was not expecting that kind of response. She failed, how was this good? It didn't matter to her though, Nightmayr seemed to be pleased anyway.

The leader signaled to Rachael to depart. The nightmaren nodded to her leader and flew out of the large castle. At this rate, they never were going to get any ideya.


	6. Chapter 6

**Sorry i keep changing the cover photo I literally cannot keep something constant yikes. Anyway schools out and im finally writing again and i had to revamp this chapter in order to get out of a block so yeah idk sorry if it seems rushed.**

**btw i dont think i mentioned this before but anything _written in italics_ is an event that happened in the past. you can piece together yourself how long ago 'the past' is throughout the story I guess if you feel the need to?**

* * *

_Claris Sinclair was always a curious person. She was never satisfied with a simple answer, and had to figure out things out for herself. After talking to NiGHTS about the Night Dimension, Claris was determined to find out more. The only problem was that she got nervous when doing things alone, and knew for a fact NiGHTS wouldn't be much help. For some reason, every time she brought up anything about the Night Dimension, NiGHTS would shove it off and change the subject immediately. This bothered Claris quite a bit._

_Claris had been walking around town, and walked past the small basketball court a few times, hoping to see Elliot. The two could never see each other in their dreams, but sometimes they were lucky enough to run into each other in the waking world. _

_It was hard for the two to ever see each other since they had helped NiGHTS stop Wizeman on his mission to infiltrate the waking world. Claris was always practicing with her acapella group, or taking piano lessons at home, and Elliot only rarely stopped by the court to shoot a few hoops with his friends. _

_After about 20 minutes of walking around, Claris decided to rest her feet and took a seat on an old worn out bench that had probably been there since the city's founding. While she was resting, Claris' attention was caught by shouting and hollering back over by the basketball court. Grinning, the girl sat up and began jogging around the corner and saw a bunch of boys playing a small game, and among them was Elliot._

_Claris didn't want to make a big scene, but she had to get his attention somehow. She looked down at her feet and bent over to pick up a small round pebble. She waited until Elliot was close enough before hurling the pebble in his direction and bonking him in the head with it. Elliot immediately went to feel his head and looked over to see Claris standing beyond the fence waving. He grinned and ran over to see her._

"_God Claris you could have at least used a less painful tactic to get my attention. Nice aim, though."_

"_Oh come on, it was just a little pebble you baby!" She smirked back. Her face was beaming with joy to talk to her old friend again. "Anyway, there's something I wanted to talk to you about. Think you could ditch your buddies for a bit?"_

* * *

A couple more days passed, and Juliet had not returned to Nightopia. She was still confused as to what NiGHTS was trying to tell her, and the attack at school didn't make her mind any more clear.

While she was changing into her required uniform in the bathroom, she noticed how wrinkled it had gotten. Juliet frowned, figuring maybe it wasn't the best idea to cram it into her locker instead of bringing it home, but if she changed now her routine would get thrown off and balance in her day would be lost. It was better to walk around school with a wrinkled uniform than to deal with change. There was already too much of it.

Juliet finished tucking her shirt into her maroon pleated skirt, and bent over to pull her socks up a bit. Standing up, she leaned in closer to the mirror to fix all 11 of her brightly colored hairclips, making sure they looked organized and there were no repeating colors.

The bell rang, and Juliet and Alaia, who were taking their sweet time chatting in the hallway, rushed to their classroom.

The day after the attack, Juliet's teacher was back and was unaware of ever being out. Even now, he continues to teach oblivious to what happened then.

How was that nightmaren able to escape into the real world? She thought all nightmares existed only...well… within nightmares. The next time she saw NiGHTS, she would make sure to bring it up. But when would that be?

7th period took forever to get to, and by this time Juliet was dragging herself through the hallway. She pulled her new schedule out of her folder and checked to confirm the room number of 7th period. She managed to convince her mother to let her drop the art elective she took so she could have a study hall sometime in her day. Before this, she had a full day, and with recent events, it was quite exhausting.

She walked into the classroom and handed her teacher a note confirming the transition. The teacher smiled, "Juliet Evans, right? Take a seat anywhere I'll make sure to add you to attendance."

"Thank you," Juliet nervously replied, never being good with conversation. She turned around to see the other kids in her class. Most were already in their friend groups or cliques. There were some boys in the front making paper airplanes and throwing them at another group of girls who were all on their phones.

Juliet looked over and noticed the same boy once again from before, no one else was sitting around him so she figured she'd be the first. It's not like she was going to go sit with the high schoolers making paper airplanes.

"Looks like we have a class together. And this time I'm not on the floor." She said taking a seat next to him, trying to break the ice a little bit.

He jumped a bit, yelping a bit and quickly covering his mouth as their peers turned to look at them, then going back to whatever they were doing before.

"Sorry, you startled me," he confessed.

"Like that wasn't obvious already," Juliet laughed, shifting a bit in her seat as she took out her agenda to look over her homework. "Hey by the way, I don't think I ever caught your name."

He looked a little embarrassed at the mention and sat up from his slouch. "Uh yeah, I have a habit of forgetting that. It's Will."

"Well I know I've already introduced myself before but, I'm Juliet. It's nice to officially meet you." This was a bit uneasy for Juliet, she was never good at actually talking to people, but it seemed she would have to start.

The period went on, and Juliet noticed Will was still working on the same worksheet as he was at the start of the period. She inched over a bit and peered over his shoulder. There were scribbles all over the paper and he seemed to be getting pretty frusturated.

"I'm guessing math isn't your best subject..." Juliet acknowledged.

"This? Oh, yeah. I haven't really had time to work on school, I'm kinda far behind."

"Well… I don't mean to intrude on anything but math is one of my best subjects right now. Maybe I could help you catch up after school?"

Will looked at her and smiled a bit, "Uh, sure if you wouldn't mind. That's nice of you to offer. We could stay after school?"

"Sure! My parents would be more than happy to kick me out for a few hours." Juliet laughed, feeling a bit relieved that she could keep up a conversation for this long.

After school, the two teens met up in the library. The library was a rather small section of the school, but it was a nice quiet place to study. Juliet looked out the windows and noticed the changing colors on the trees. It was getting colder out as October came, but colors always make it bearable. Autumn was Juliet's favorite season. It was never too cold or too warm, and there was always apple cider in the house. Bellbridge is the best place to be during this season, Halloween isn't as big in Europe as it is in America, but this city is known to go all out for it to try and spread the festivities. No one is really sure why it's so big in this town. The colder seasons are the busiest in Bellbridge, during October there's always something to do. There's pumpkin carvings, haunted houses, and tons of parties to go to. Juliet never got the chance to go to anything, though. She never had anyone to go with.

After about an hour of math, a buzz sound went off that vibrated the whole table. "Sorry," Will said, picking up his phone. Juliet heard him whisper a silent 'uh oh' before answering the call.

She tried to tune out the conversation, not wanting to be an eavesdropper or anything, but she did hear a 'yeah' and an 'okay' every second or two. Finally he ended the call and started to put everything away. He seemed really annoyed.

"Sorry I need to leave so soon, that was my sister. I gotta go to come stupid halloween party with her since my dad doesn't trust me to stay home for reason," he rolled his eyes, "I don't know what his deal is sometimes."

"It's fine! I understand how parents can be." Juliet tried to relate. The mention of the halloween party had her intrigued, though. No one had ever mentioned it to her before, and she completely forgot she wanted to ask Alaia about going. She ran out of the school and all the way home to call Alaia and ask them about going on their first date tonight.


	7. Chapter 7

"_Other places? Are you talking about the Nightopias of other dreamers?"_

"_No, I mean like other worlds within the Night Dimension. I mean, it's a whole dimension... the Dark realm and Nightopia couldn't possibly be the only things inside it." Claris realized Elliot was having a hard time understanding her point. He obviously had never once thought about it, but Claris had gotten him thinking._

"_I guess...you're right. I mean it is the world of dreams afters all. The mind is endless… it would make sense if a dimension created by the mind would be extended as well. Have you talked to NiGHTS about it at all?"_

"_That's what I wanted to get at… they keep dodging the subject. They don't seem to care at all." _

_Elliot looked down, now he was really thinking hard. "The fact they're so quick to dodge it means something is definitely up in the Night Dimension. What it could be…. thats debatable." He dribbled his basketball a few times to get his mind to focus._

"_Don't bother thinking about why. I've already kept myself up all night thinking about it." Claris sighed. Right now things looked hopeless. _

"_Well I mean…. does it really matter?" Elliot stopped mid-dribble, tucking the ball under his arm again. Claris shot up, a bit surprised at Elliot's sudden change of view. "I mean… we go to Nightopia when we sleep…. fly around a bit…. and then wake up. Why should it matter to us what else goes on? It's a bit nosy to me, even NiGHTS obviously doesn't like you trying to get involved."_

_This ticked the artist off quite a bit. Did Elliot really not care about the other mysterious of the dream world? Did he just not have the same curious mind as Claris? She was about to protest, but it hit her that maybe Elliot was just too scared to get involved. Elliot always masked his inner emotions with different ones, it was hard to tell what he was really thinking most of the time._

_Well, that knocked Elliot down on her list. Who else would she talk to? Would she just have to keep pestering NiGHTS until they broke and told her everything? There had to be someone who would help her._

_That night, Claris tried to get to bed at a reasonable time, if it weren't for the fact she was tossing in her bed having trouble getting to sleep. There was a huge thunderstorm that night, and Claris hated the loud crashes of thunder._

_Finally the dreamer entered sleep and found herself in the familiar Spring Valley, the dream of ideal. Everything in the nightopia seemed normal. The nightopians were singing a joyous tune, and there were no nightmarens to be seen since she and NiGHTS had rid of them._

_NiGHTS…. where were they? Claris got worried, maybe she had bothered NiGHTS too much. Would he be coming tonight?_

_Dark clouds began forming over the distant blue sky of the dream, spreading darkness over the valley, as if the storm occurring in the waking world had entered the dreaming. The nightopians chirped and began to fly away, and Claris just watched as the atmosphere of the once sunny nightopia turned cold and rainy almost instantly. The rivers were running fast and began to overflow, bringing with it several nightopians. _

_Claris began to jog away, which turned into a run, and eventually a full out sprint. The ground became muddy from the rain, causing Claris to slip and tumble down one of the many valleys. She picked herself up and looked down at her now mud covered clothes. _

_A bolt of lightening quickly struck down right at the feet of the dreamer, and before Claris had time to react, a voice boomed like thunder in her ear._

"_So I hear you want to know more about the night dimension."_

* * *

Maria Taylor returned home after another day at work, and was utterly exhausted. She couldn't wait to collapse on the sofa and sleep the rest of the afternoon until dinner time. Her coat pocket buzzed, and she sighed as she took out her phone, wondering who was bothering her now.

**hey u home frm work yet?**

**yeah, just got off why**

**i need ur opinion on what to**

**wear 2night.**

**tonight? where are u going**

**isnt the party 2night?**

**babe did u forget lol**

"Ah, shit!" Maria cursed out loud, slamming her phone down. She rushed into the kitchen to check the calendar. She had completely forgotten about the halloween party she and Cloud were going to tonight.

**oh no i totally forgot**

**lmao of course u did ;)**

**whats that supposed to mean lmao?**

**i guess i should start getting ready since**

**it's in a few hours :/**

**if u wanna cancel thts fine we can**

**do smthin else :)**

**no i want to go! everyone else is**

**gonna be there haha ive been**

**looking forward to it for a while**

**shit i never even talked to my dad**

**yet**

**wtf ur 19 he doesnt need 2 kno**

**nah if i dont tell him he'll freak!**

Maria opened a new conversation with her dad to ask about the party. She hated speaking on the phone with him. He asks way too many questions.

**hey dad im going to a party tonight**

**with cloud so if you come home tonight**

**and im not home thats where i am**

**Where is this party?**

And the questions begin.

**its the big halloween one downtown tonight**

**i went last year**

**Who's going with you?**

**clouds taking me and were meeting up with**

**some friends there**

**Is he driving you there? How**

**are you getting home.**

This was tedious. Maria was pressing her phones keyboard harder and harder each text.

**yes, clouds driving here and back. party ends**

**at like 2am**

**You're not staying out that late.**

**You have work tomorrow.**

**yeah at like noon? :/**

**Ok.**

There it was. The confusing 'ok' text with no context that ends the conversation. Maria never knew what 'Ok' ever really meant, but she always took it as 'you can do whatever you want. She went to reply to Cloud about what her dad said, but she got another text.

**Is your brother going.**

**no i dont think so. ?**

**Take him with you.**

**I don't want him staying home**

**alone so late.**

**dad hes fucking 16 hes fine**

**No.**

**Watch your language.**

**Either take him with you or**

**don't go.**

Maria threw her head back into the sofa and groaned. Why did her dad have to make everything so difficult. She knew there was no way to get him to change his mind, though.

She still had a bit more time to spare before she had to start getting ready and decided to watch some tv. Maria turned on the tv and like usual, the news was already on. She got up and went into the kitchen again to grab a snack, not really ever interested in any stories. Nothing happens in Bellbridge.

While in the kitchen, she overheard them talking about a topic that has been popping up everywhere around the world lately. Missing teenagers. Recently, several teenagers have just disappeared off the face of the Earth. Most of the kids reported were ones who were abandoned by their families and homeless, but some disappeared right in their own rooms. She figured they were just discussing the popularity of the phenomenon, but when Maria looked back to the tv she saw the picture of a girl wearing a Bellbridge High uniform. She was reported missing this afternoon.

* * *

When Juliet got home she immediately ran into her room for some privacy. She dialed Alaia's number and waited for her datefriend to pick up.

"Heeeeeello?" Alaia answered, you could hear them smiling.

"Alaia! I know this is super last minute but I was wondering if you wanted to maybe go to that Halloween party tonight? You know like...a date!" Juliet's face was hot.

"Aw…. I thought you had more info on that dream you had." Alaia sounded a bit too disappointed for someone who was just asked out on a date.

"Oh…. yeah sorry. I promise I'll fill you in once I've figured some things out, okay?" Juliet twiddled her thumbs, getting a bit anxious, "What about the party, though?"

"Oh of course! I think it'll be fun."

Juliet wasn't convinced. Alaia didn't sound excited at all. They never were a big fan of Halloween, or at least never got into the spirit. Alaia used to live in London, so they never grew up with it all until they moved to Bellbridge when they were 11. Juliet was their first friend here.

And now she felt like she bothered them with asking.

"Well ok but… I guess if the party gets to be too much we could go to the New Moon cafe down the block. It'll be a lot calmer there." Juliet tried to make up for the bad invitation.

Alaia just laughed, "Alright, but I think the party sounds fun tonight. I don't have a costume, though."

"Oh! I don't have one either… it's optional. Most people don't go with them anyway, it's just a fun way to start off October."

"Right, okay! I'll see you there I guess."

Juliet hung up the phone and let out a big sigh of relief. She hoped things would go well tonight, it was their first date after all. She walked downstairs to talk to her parents more about tonight, and saw that they were watching the TV, her mother had a scared look on her face.

Juliet recognized the girl from her school who she had bumped into that one day, those big strawberry blonde pigtails were unforgettable. She thought the girl was on the news for some extreme academic award or something, what else could she possibly be on it for?

And then it hit her.

Alice McHenry had disappeared.

* * *

"Hoo, my! I haven't seen you this energetic since you first left the Dark Realm." Owl commented as NiGHTS ecstatically flew around the Dream Gate. The jester happily glided through the trees and giggled as they flew down to touch the water.

"I'm just so excited to see what happens! That new visitor sure is something, I wonder what other kinds of dreams she has!"

"Well well that's all to find out later. We must focus on more important things right now! Yes, the new dreams are exciting but it still is not enough to hold this place together!" Owl reminded the nightmaren.

NiGHTS stopped mid-flight and returned back to the main hub. They could feel the Dream Gate slowly breaking apart. "You're right… but I don't know what to do. I have no idea what shape the Dark Realm is in either, it could be the end of this place…"

"Hoo well I didn't mean to bring you down again! I was just stating facts, is all. All we can do is rely on the visitor. Even so, we don't know if she will be successful with her task."

"Do you think she'll find them, Owl? It's been decades since they were here it feels like, who knows if they're even around anymore after what happened…" NiGHTS sighed, recalling some unpleasant memories.

"I think she'll be fine. Who knows, maybe instead we'll get some fresh dreamers," Owl chuckled, letting out a 'hoo!' at the end.

NiGHTS just nodded and flew back up into the air, getting a few more laps in around the hub, they had a lot of time to spare.

They wondered how Reala was doing right now. No, how all of the_ Dark Realm_ was doing. Wizeman was gone…. how were they surviving? Maybe Reala was leading them. NiGHTS shuddered at the thought.

NiGHTS had just cleared his mind of things when they heard Owl yelp from below. The old bird had been shaken off his perch. The nightmaren retreated to the surface, and felt the tremors beginning. They heard a loud crash behind them, and apprehensively looked back to see the large staircase begin to fall apart and crash to the ground.

The Dream Gate had begun to collapse.


	8. Chapter 8

**_alright so anyone whos been keeping track of updating fics on here, you've probably noticed my friend twilins stories! for a sort of disclaimer i guess, im going to say that yes: we both have the same characters! so far, i want to say our stories are both different universes/timelines. Right now they don't really match up timeline wise, but i guess twilin is working on a way to make them all go together. we both write characters and things a bit different so :0 idk_**

**_this chapter is pretty heavy in the past. theres gonna be a lot of info thrown at once so if anything is_ confusing_ just ask me to clear it up ;0 _**

**_i also write at like 2am so if anything sounds weird or doesnt make sense ill probably fix it up another time _**

* * *

_Claris shuddered, and slowly opened her eyes to view the creature in front of her. Her hair had been swept into her face from the rain, and she could barely open her eyes into a squint from the drops hitting her face. _

_The dreamer managed to get a small glance up, and was greeted by a sparkling blue cat-like eye glaring back. _

"_...NiGHTS?" Claris whispered, recognizing those blue eyes anywhere._

"_NiGHTS? NiGHTS!" The newcomer broke out into a raspy cackle. "I mean, I'm honored, really. Truly I am. Ah… let me clear things up." There was another burst of lightning across the dream. The rain stopped, and the sun began to break through the dark clouds. Claris was still soaked from head to toe and covered in mud, but she wiped her soaken strands of hair out of her eyes, and got a better look at her new acquaintance. _

_They were a similar appearance to NiGHTS, with two long jagged horns drooping down to their torso. Their bright neon yellow color almost blinded Claris, but it contrasted well the hues of blues lining their outfit. _

"_Sorry about that, I like to make an appearance. Any way, about before…. I hear you're curious about the Night Dimension." Claris was too in shock to respond. She stared wide eyed in disbelief at the obvious Nightmaren. _

"_How did you… know that?"_

"_A little mepian told me. So, you ready to explore?" This nightmaren seemed rather optimistic and friendly for someone who tried to tear a nightopia from it seams a few minutes ago. They grabbed the dreamers wrist and began to fly up._

"_W-wait!" Claris shrieked, "Who are you! NiGHTS never mentioned anything about other 1st level Nightmaren, neither did Wizeman!"_

"_He didn't? Well Wizemans just a bit modest with some of his better creations I guess," the flier smirked to themselves. "They call me Jolten, and today I will be your guide through the wonders of the dream world." They pulled Claris up higher to them, throwing the dreamer on their back as she clasped on tightly. "Please keep your hands and feet inside at all times, and no moving about the cabin." _

_Jolten began to take off and Claris shrieked once again, "W-wait again! I still don't know you! And why aren't we dualizing?" _

"_Dualizing? Ah- oh! Right… I, uh… tend to not dualize! I don't like the feeling, yeah…." Jolten stuttered. "Anyway, I think this is a lot more fun, eh? As long as you don't let go we'll be fine."_

_Claris didn't know what to think. First this Nightmaren acted as if it was attacking her, and then it's trying to be her friend? For all she knew, Jolten could be flying her right into the Dark Realm. Deciding to push away her doubts, the dreamer agreed to fly with Jolten._

_When Jolten had taken off, it was a feeling Claris had never felt before with NiGHTS. They sped through different lights and colors, some colors never before imagined by humans. Everything passed by so fast, and Claris felt like had weighed nothing while speeding through the endless dream world._

_There was a bright light, and Jolten had abruptly seized flying, causing the dreamer to fly off landing in a big pile of rubble. _

_Claris picked herself up and looked down at her scraped and bleeding knees. She grunted a bit while trying to walk, and tried to refocus herself so she could follow Jolten._

_The location Jolten had taken her to was a dark and cloudy world, almost as if Jolten did take her straight into the dark realm. The ground was a cobble walkway, and several fountains and shrubs lined the perimeter. There appeared to be remains of what used to be buildings and castles scattered around blocking pathways leading to large doors that seemed to have been broken down. A long bridge stretched into the distance and was lost in the heavy fog surrounding the world, and below were waters so dark and heavy it looked like ink._

"_What is this place…" Claris said in awe, looking around for Jolten who seemed to have wandered quite a distance from the dreamer._

"_They called it the Dream Plaza, it was abandoned very recently, actually."_

"_Abandoned? What was the plaza used for?"_

"_It was a gathering place for dreamers, it's where they arrived when they fell asleep. From here they could enter their own personal dreams or could converse with other dreamers from all over the world. I guess they discovered this was dangerous or something, and shut it down for good." _

_Claris immediately recalled NiGHTS mentioning a place like this. So this is what they were talking about! One thing about Jolten's lecture was bothering her, though._

"'_They'? Who's 'they'?" _

_Jolten turned around, and instead of answering Claris, they just smiled. "I come here a lot to get away from everybody. It's very peaceful and beautiful, it's a bit sad it went to trash like this though." The nightmaren shrugged, "I came across it while sneaking around places I probably shouldn't have been, no one else knows how to get here I don't think. The Dream Plaza is probably the center of history of the Night dimension. Oh well, I guess that boring old replacement is okay too."_

"_Replacement?" _

"_You know, the Dream Gate." Jolten could tell by the look on Claris' face that she had no idea what the Dream Gate was, and they laughed. "Man did that purple bundle of adventure really hide everything from you? It's amazing people still trust them!"_

_Claris' stomach turned, and she felt sick. NiGHTS really didn't ever tell her anything… why did she trust them so much?_

"_The Dream Gate was a part of the Dream Plaza, when they abandoned the plaza, they took off a huge chunk of the land and sent it off to another location." Claris still didn't understand who 'they' was. "It's basically the same deal as the plaza, from there you can choose which dream you wish to enter instead of taking a random chance when you fall asleep. It's unheard of for dreamers to see each other while dreaming now, however. Some dream law that was passed of whatever, I don't usually follow politics." Jolten joked. _

_Claris pointed to the bridge off the edge. It was kind of creepy looking surrounded by all the fog. "Where does that bridge lead to?"_

_Jolten took no time in responding, "Nightmare." Before Claris had time to enter panic-mode, Jolten continued to explain further, "Yes, that bridge leads to the dark realm. On the other side is a plaza not too different from this one, but filled with nightmares instead of dreams. The bridge allowed dreamers to travel freely between the two plazas, why anyone wanted to was unknown. There used to be a balance between the opposite sides, it was a peaceful and rather fun time for everyone. Lately that balance has begun to fall apart… and I think it started because of __**them**__." The last words Jolten said were muttered, but were filled with anger which was obvious. _

"_Does the Nightmare Plaza still work… or…. I mean was it abandoned like this one?" _

"_You ask a lot of questions," Jolten grumbled, "Anyway, not exactly. It's been closed off from dreamers for a long time. Occasionally 3rd levels will scrounge around for ideya, dumb asses don't realize they're not gonna find any there anymore."_

"_So it's basically deserted too… wait! The bridge connects the two worlds, right? How come the nightmaren don't come over here? It's a bit odd…."_

"_Not really," Jolten rolled their eyes, "they're third levels. First of all, they're probably too dumb to realize there __**is**_ _a bridge in the first place. Plus, what interest does a nightmaren have coming to a big abandoned rock that hasn't been walked upon by a dreamer for centuries? You need to think before you start asking so many idiotic questions, dreamer." They crossed their arms, and began to scan the area once more, "To any other nightmaren this place is just garbage. But…" Jolten quickly swiveled around, and flew right into Claris' face, "this place __**does **__have an interest to me."_

* * *

The ride to the party was agonizing. Juliet couldn't stop thinking about Alice's status. Sure, the girl was a bitch, but the idea of someone being swept away in a second scared her. So far, no one who's disappeared has been found, and there's been no updated on other stories either. It was weird.

At the party, Juliet met up with Alaia, giving them a peck on the cheek before running inside. Alaia wasn't in full costume, but had just thrown on a lacey black dress and some cat ears to match. Juliet hadn't put only anything costume related, just her favorite pink party dress she had been saving for events like this.

The inside of the warehouse had been covered ceiling to floor in orange and black party decorations. There were bats hanging from the ceiling, streamers thrown all over the walls, there were even bat shaped balloons. The lighting made it hard to see where you were going, and you bumped into people a lot. There were tons of snacks including cupcakes, cookies, fruit trays, soda, and popcorn, the food was always Juliet's favorite part of events.

Most of the songs played were those big Halloween hits that play every other 2 songs that you really start to get sick of. If Juliet had to hear another play of 'Monster Mash' again she would probably ditch the place, if it weren't for the fact she was having a lot of fun. Alaia seemed to be enjoying it too, it was the first time Juliet had seen her datefriend get so pumped. She knew Alaia was going to be pretty sore tomorrow from all those backbends they were doing. It was entertaining to watch, though.

After a night of continuous plays of Monster Mash, Thriller and Ghostbusters the final song played was a slow dance. Many people left the dance floor, mostly single people. Juliet chuckled to herself.

Alaia rested their head on Juliet's shoulder and they held each other tightly, breathing in sync as they stepped to the beat of the song. Other couples began to give the two odd and some disturbed looks, but Juliet didn't care anymore. She had never been so happy in her life.

Will had been sitting on the outer edge of the room, he had mostly been on his phone the whole time trying to avoid eye contact with anyone else there. Maria came, left him here, and went off to do her own thing. He had no clue where she was, but honestly he didn't care.

The place was really hot. There were so many people, and it was too crowded. Not to mention all the lights that blind you if you stare at them for less than a second. Will was wearing a huge baggy sweatshirt, so as usual he didn't prepare for how how it was going to be here. The music was also really loud and annoying to listen to. It was miserable.

Will decided to wait outside the rest of the time. Maria probably wouldn't even notice he was gone and he could honestly walk home if they weren't all the way out in the city. He got up after sitting for about 2 hours and began to walk over to the exit, thinking about how much nicer it would be outside. Unfortunately, Will stood up too fast so naturally began to get dizzy. For a few seconds his vision went blurry and he had trouble walking, which was just enough time to fall over onto another person.

He immediately began to apologize profusely and got up to help the other person up.

"It-it's fine! It's kind of hard to watch where you're going in here," the girl laughed and looked right back at Will.

Their eyes made direct contact, and something sparked in Will's mind. Memories began to flood his mind all at once, and it was overwhelming to take in. The girls eyes widened back at him, and they both sat there motionless staring at each other.

"Will…?" she gasped.

"Helen…?"


	9. Chapter 9

**warning! this chapter contains violence, *shakes fist* the gays, and a 13 year old with a knife.**

* * *

_Jolten gave a smirk, and quickly fled, leaving Claris a bit confused. She began to give chase to the ecstatic nightmaren, but soon lost their track. She still had questions, but decided to do some investigating herself. _

_Claris began to head towards the most eye-catching aspect of the plaza, the castle. Claris had never heard mention of any royalty in the dream world, unless Wizeman and 1st level nightmaren count. Then again, NiGHTS never mentioned a whole lot anyway._

_The inside of the castle appeared to be vacant, but it felt more put together than the rest of the surroundings. While everything outside was demolished and hidden, the inside was… well….the opposite. The chandelier hanging from above still had a few candles lit, no doors were torn apart, and the walls still sparkled with youth. It was a bit odd, since Jolten had mentioned this place has been abandoned._

_Claris began to walk down the corridors to see if the rest of the castle was as put together as the main hall. And it was. Nothing seemed to be wrong with the place… except that Claris noticed that she had been walking right towards a dead end. She shrugged, finding the placement of the bare wall to be a bit random and started to head back to the main hall. Something had stopped her in her tracks. She looked down to see a bright ruby glow emitting from her hands. _

"_This hasn't happened for a while…" Claris said in awe, and whipped back around to face the dead end on instinct. _

_There was a bright light bursting through the cracks of the stone wall that was blinding to look at. Claris struggled to get closer, but managed to inch close enough to be able to place her palm on the stone. The wall began to crack more, and before Claris knew it she was standing in front of a gateway to another world. A blizzardy landscape revealed itself beyond the hallway, and Claris could feel the cold sweeping against her skin. She stared blindly in the distance, not knowing if she should go ahead without Jolten. _

_She took a small step forward and felt her foot sink into the glistening white snow. Claris glanced up at the sky, squinting as the tiny flakes hit her eyes. There was not a single cloud up there, and instead was replaced with several tiny stars lining the sky. The moon was big, it almost looked like it would crash into the ground if it was any closer, and an aurora borealis was reflected on the white snow. _

_Claris crossed her arms, and let out a shiver, starting to feel very cold. There was nothing else to see here, it looked just like a snowy wasteland, but Claris caught something shine in the corner of her eye. _

_There was a small orb buried in the snow, and was just barely visible. Claris leaned down to pick it up expecting it to be almost frozen, however it was radiating heat and felt hot in her shivering hands. She brought it up closer to her to get a better look at it. The orb was a solid grey, and glowed when Claris touched it. She smiled as she gazed longer at it, not understanding why the orb gave her such a safe feeling._

_Claris' trance was broken when she heard a shout from behind her, and turned around to see Jolten grinning._

"_Hey, you found it! Thanks, you can just…" Jolten held out their hand, their grin stretching across their face, "...give it to me."_

_Claris stared for a moment, not knowing what to do. The orb had stopped glowing, and began to feel cold in her hands, Claris felt it telling her it was a bad idea. She looked back at Jolten, and held the orb tighter to her chest, "I… I don't think I should." _

"_What?" Jolten's smile turned angry, and Claris could feel the clouds forming from above as they blocked out the light from the aurora. _

"_I… I just don't think it's a good idea thats all. Look, I appreciate you showing me around and all but… you're still a nightmaren and…"_

"_So?" They spat. "NiGHTS is a nightmaren! I thought we were friends now!" _

_Claris began to panic. She felt the snowflakes turn into hail as they hit her skin. The place became darker and colder the more Jolten got angry. "No…!" Claris managed to let out, and began to run. She felt Jolten's claws grab at her collar, and she was dragged down face first into the snow._

"_Listen you brat!" Jolten yelled, "You don't even know what thing is, alright! Give it to me! You already did your job here!"_

_Did her job? That's when it hit her. Jolten had been using her._

* * *

Juliet was having the time of her life as she and Alaia continued to dance. Step by step the two became the couple of the night, and the two couldn't have felt happier together. Juliet had been lost in thought, breathing steadily, and wanting this song to go on forever. She looked up at Alaia, and the two laughed as she paused for a bit.

The song stopped abruptly as all the lights in the party shut off. Juliet's heart stopped for a quick second, and she could tell Alaia's did the same.

"Yo, what's up with the power?" someone on the dancefloor shouted rather rudely.

"Did we lose power?" Another girl murmured.

"Everyone, calm down!" the DJ interrupted, "we're probably getting a storm or something, someone go check outside, ay?"

"Doors are locked!"

"This some kind of Halloween prank or somethin?"

"Let us out! I can't see anything in here!"

Juliet felt numb, she kept telling herself it was a Halloween prank but she was still paranoid. She felt Alaia place their hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry," they said calmly, chuckling a bit.

In the midst of all the nervous chatter, Juliet heard someone shriek, followed by a few others yelping and falling over.

"Well, well. I said excuse me. I thought it was human courtesy to move when someone says that. You deserved that. Oh quit, whimpering. You sound pathetic. It was just a little stab, walk it off." A voice chuckled as a few others whined.

"There's blood!" Someone screamed.

"It's fake right? It's part of the prank!" A nervous laughter broke out.

Juliet began to back away from the commotion, not being able to see what was happening. She was holding Alaia's hand, who was backing away with her.

"Cloud! Cloud answer me! Someone call the police!"

"Where did that kid go? H-Hey! Ah!"

"Don't call me a kid. I don't wish to be associated on the same level as you pathetic party-goers are. Morgan, hit the lights please."

A few of the main lights flickered back on enough for people to see. Everyone screamed as the finally saw what the commotion was about. A person was on the ground. His shirt was covered in blood and there was a knife next to him. A girl was hovering over him screaming for help, most people fled towards the doors and began to yell.

There was a small boy in the middle of it all laughing. He had messy black hair and an operation patch over his left eye. Something was very off about him.

Another kid ran over next to him, holding another knife. They were much smaller than the boy with the patch.

"Good job, Morgan. One less person in our way." The boy ruffled the kids teal colored hair. "Anyway, we need to get to work."

Everyone at the party had fled to the outskirts of the warehouse, and the two troublemakers had made themselves the center of the circle.

The boy with the patch began to scan all the people there, not exactly sure who he was looking for. "Alright then," he raised his voice. "Where's Juliet."

Juliet could feel her heart drop to the bottom of her stomach. They had to be talking about someone else. Alaia stared wide-eyed at her.

Another person walked to the center of the floor. She was a girl about the same height as the first boy, but stood on her tiptoes when she walked to feel taller.

"You sure we should be doing this, Marcus?" She muttered to the boy. "Nightmayr didn't exactly-"

"Shut up! I'm Nightmayr's most trusted ally! And I'm the leader of this group so I make the decisions!" Marcus snapped back.

Nightmayr…? Juliet thought to herself.

The girl rolled her eyes, "whatever."

Marcus started to walk along the outskirts, glaring at all the nervous faces. Morgan followed him, making sure to show off his knife as much as possible, acting like it was a toy.

Juliet shut her eyes and held her breathe as Marcus drew closer to her and Alaia. She opened them a bit to get a glimpse of Marcus standing in front of them. Their eyes locked, and his bright green eye glared directly into her own.

"Gotcha…" He sneered.

Alaia acted on impulse, and backhanded Marcus so hard he lost balance and fell over. They grabbed Juliet's hand and shoved Morgan over as well as she ran towards the door. Several other people crowded around them as well. Alaia started the kick the doors trying to get them to open, but it was useless. The girl from the trio barrelled through the crowd and knocked over Alaia. She grabbed Juliet by the front of her dress and threw her backwards into Marcus.

"So I hear you're Nightopia's hope? Kinda pathetic if you ask me. Morgan, get it over with."

Morgan crept up to Juliet, giggling childishly as they waved their knife around. Juliet squirmed around in Marcus' grip but couldn't get away. Right as Morgan held the weapon up, there was a loud crash.

"Marcus…" A low voice growled.

Marcus dropped Juliet and stood frozen. Juliet looked around to see who was there, and no one else was around except for a dark ghostly figure hovering behind the two.

"Marcus!" The voiced shouted.

"Y-yes?" He stuttered, smiling as innocently as possible. Juliet took the opportunity to scurry away behind Alaia and get herself together.

"What do you think you're all doing? Having a little party?"

"W-we were getting rid of the danger, sir! That's… that's what you wanted isn't it?"

"You acted on your own and returned to the awake world, there will be consequences." The ghost growled, "pull yourselves together and get back to the Dark Realm immediately."

"Yes Nightmayr!" The ghost vanished, and Marcus looked towards Morgan and girl nervously. "We're retreating. Let's get out of here."

The lights shut off , leaving the crowd blinded in the darkness once more. The trio had vanished when the lights came back on and sirens were heard from outside the building, which was now accessible.

Alaia had helped Juliet to her feet, and the two kissed each other on the cheeks. "Juliet what… was all that about?" Her datefriend asked concerningly.

Juliet peered over Alaia to see Will walking up to her, followed by another girl she had never seen before.

"I'll talk to you later okay? Uh, thanks for coming. It was… fun." She brushed past Alaia, feeling bad for the way things turned out. She didn't expect her dreams to become reality, literally. She walked up to Will, who had a mix of a concerned and an angry expression on his face, "Uh… what's up?"

"We need to talk."


	10. Chapter 10

"_You…. you were…" _

"_Aw, jeez. Don't start crying about it, you're too cute to do that." Jolten smirked._

_Claris clutched the orb tighter in her hand, "Flattering won't get you anywhere! Y-you won't get this, whatever it is! You Nightmaren!" _

_Jolten chucked "It's been awhile since I've been called that, surprisingly. Anyway, enough games. Sorry kid, but your night's over." They raised their arm up and showed off a toothy grin. Before they were able to do anything more, they felt something knock into their side and they fell over face first into the snow. _

_Claris sat there motionless, not sure what had just happened. She looked down at the orb still in her hand. It's cold shell began to emit heat once more, warming Claris' palm. The feeling of the orb had cleared her mind, almost forgetting everything that just happened._

_Her trance was broken by the sound of Jolten groaning. Claris tried to look through the blizzard to see Jolten's yellow figure lying motionless, being buried by the snow. _

_Claris felt a familiar touch on her shoulder, and looked up to NiGHTS glaring down at her. She felt awkward, NiGHTS didn't look happy, and Claris was afraid she was the reason why. _

"_What are you doing here? With that_ _**thing**__, nonetheless?" NiGHTS demanded, gritting their teeth._

"_Well…. I guess… you see…." Claris wasn't sure how to get out of this one. She looked into her friend's eyes, but all she saw was a stranger's. Claris was terrified of NiGHTS. _

"_You…." Jolten muttered, picking themself back up on their feet. "Always __**ruining**_ _everything…" They started limply flying in the direction of the duo, but NiGHTS was quicker. He knocked Jolten back onto the ground, Jolten letting out a cry of frustration as they plunged into the snow. _

"_Or should I rephrase it," NiGHTS was hovering over Jolten's body, and bent over to get close to their face, "what is this_ _**thing**_ _doing here with __**Claris**__?" _

"_This __**thing **__is trying to do something that should have been done a long time ago!" Jolten grabbed NiGHTS' leg and flung him to the side, sitting themself back up and shooting a glare at Claris. NiGHTS flung himself on top of Jolten and held them down before they could do anything._

"_Why you…. why is it always you!" Jolten screamed, finally giving up the fight. NiGHTS just continued to stare down at the other as they threw a tantrum. "Why...why…." Their voice grew quieter as they repeated the word. _

_NiGHTS finally got off of them, and flew back over to where Claris had been sitting. _

"_Why…."_

_NiGHTS held out his hand to Claris, and she reached for it with the hand holding the orb, which NiGHTS then took into his own. "Where did you find this…" he muttered._

"_It was just lying here, I got curious and when I touched it, it started glowing! Do… know what it is…?"_

_To Claris' surprise, NiGHTS shook his head. Or was he just lying to her again? _

"_I don't even know where we _are_. I sensed nightmaren in Spring Valley and saw you flying away with that crumpled up blueprint. I… I followed you…" NiGHTS' tone hinted at regret in his actions, but in the end Claris was glad he did. _

_NiGHTS helped Claris off the ground and the two dualized. It felt good to actually be dualized with him again, but after everything Jolten said it was hard for her to really trust her friends words. _

"_So what… you're just gonna fly off and pretend like nothing happened as usual, huh?" Jolten called as NiGHTS and Claris began to head out. NiGHTS gave an expressionless glance back at Jolten. "You're no different than me you know…" They muttered, "were both crumpled up blueprints. You failed as a nightmaren too, you're no more of a first level than I am." _

_NiGHTS grunted in annoyance and flew off with Claris, but Jolten's words pounded in his head._

_He really was a failed nightmaren._

* * *

Juliet turned back to look at Alaia, who had already pulled her phone out to call for a ride home. Juliet sighed, feeling bad for having to leave Alaia right now, but this was serious, and she didn't want them to get involved. Alaia looked up to meet eyes with Juliet and gave a reassuring smile, and Juliet returned one back. She leaned forward and gave Alaia a final peck on the cheek. "Be safe." Alaia whispered so that only Juliet could here, she could tell they were worried, and Juliet wished there was a way to assure her nothing would happen.

Juliet walked back up to Will, laughing a bit nervously, "So I get I have a lot to explain, huh.."

Will exchanged glances with the other girl that was with him, "Maybe we should go somewhere a bit more private." He suggested.

The three had decided to walk across the street to Full Moon Cafe, it was one of Juliet's

favorite places to go and all she could think about was sitting at a window seat having coffee with Alaia.

On the way there, the girl who Will was with introduced herself as Helen. At first she thought the two were siblings, their appearances are strikingly similar, but it turns out she's just a friend. Juliet didn't recognize her from school, so she wondered how they knew each other. That wasn't really important though. What _was _important is how she was going to explain all this, who would even believe her?

They took a table by the window, Helen decided to order a cup of tea to not seem rude. Juliet would've gotten something too but she didn't think she could stomach anything at the moment.

Well, this was awkward, Juliet thought to herself. She was sitting in a cafe booth with the kid she helps with math and a girl she's never met once in her life, thinking about how to explain that another group of other kids she didn't even know just tried to kill her. This was going to be a long night.

Her hands were shaking violently, and she new her jumping legs were vibrating the hold table. She felt hot. Really hot.

"Ok, Juliet…" Will started, glancing over to Helen.

Oh god. The room was spinning now. She couldn't even feel her limbs anymore. This is it, Juliet thought, I'm dying.

"Look guys, I'm not feeling all that great right now. Can we do this another time? Great, thanks. Nice meeting you, Helen. I like your dress. It's cute. Very cute. Okay, bye!"

"Nice try, but sit down. Also thank you, it's vintage." Helen smiled.

Juliet plopped back into the booth, "I'm going to be straightforward for once in my life, I barely know you two. I barely know what just happened, and I certainly don't know how to explain it."

"Just try to, I'm sure we'll understand. If something's going on you need to tell people." Helen replied concerningly.

"I don't know. It's not like anyone's going to believe me." Juliet muttered.

Will and Helen glanced at each other and smiled a bit. "Try us."

"If it helps, we'll start things off." Helen stated. "What's your involvement with Nightmare?"

Juliet would've spat out her tea if she ordered anything. "Nightmare?" She shouted, causing a few heads to turn in their direction. Juliet slumped down further into the seat. "Nightmare?" she said quieter.

"Those kids mentioned the Dark Realm, which means you probably know about the rest of the Night Dimension." Will explained.

Juliet's anxiety flew away, maybe this would be easier than she thought. "Uh, yes. Only recently, though."

"Well, what's going on? Who were those other kids?"

"I wish I could tell you," Juliet sighed, "I haven't seen any of them before tonight. My mom's never going to let me leave the house again." she shuddered.

"You don't have to worry okay? We've been through all this… sorta. We used to visit Nightopia all the time, it's how we met actually." Will smiled, trying to calm Juliet down more.

"You did? Ok, well. I guess from what I remember him telling me is that Nightopia is dying because people aren't visiting anymore. Apparently it's the nightmarens fault…. but I don't know how those kids back at the party tie into all of this. All I know is that ever since I first went to that place weird things have been happening... " Juliet looked over at Will, "That time you found me in the classroom? I was just attacked by a nightmaren an-"

Both of her new friends burst out laughing. Was she missing something?

"What?" Juliet snapped.

"Nightmaren are… _nightmaren_. They can't come to the _waking world_, let alone survive in it long enough to attack." Will said, trying to keep a straight face.

"Then how else do you explain that mess of a classroom? I was being chased! It said it wanted my ideya, why don't you two believe me?" She was getting frustrated

Helen continued laughing, "Ideya is dream energy. It's not even _in _the waking world

physically. Maybe you just fell asleep in class and had a bad dream?"

"Well, I mean I _did_ fall asleep in class but that has nothing to do with this… ask Will, he saw me afterwards!"

Will slowly stopped laughing, "Alright, I guess you do have a point there. So let's just say, hypothetically, a nightmaren _was _in the waking world. How and why is it here?"

"I don't know...I meant to ask him about it, but…"

"Him?" Helen asked, "Who's 'him'?"

"Oh, uh. A friend I met in Nightopia, his name's NiGHTS."

The two started laughing again.

"What's so funny this time?" Juliet cried.

"No, nothing. It's a good laugh." Helen chuckled, "NiGHTS was our friend, too."

"Really?" finally, a switch turned on in Juliet's mind. This was it! These two were who NiGHTS wanted her to find!

Juliet jumped out of her seat, and started running out the door, "let's all catch up another time, alright? I gotta go!"

Juliet arrived in her nightopia, Lilac Plains, but no one was in sight except for a few nightopians picking flowers.

"NiGHTS? Hey NiGHTS, I'm back!" Juliet called. Nothing.

The nightopians started crying. And the wind picked up, blowing away their bouquet they had picked. Juliet jumped up and caught them before they got too far, and bent over to return them to the crying nightopians. They only shook their heads, and pushed the flowers back to her. "For me? Thank you!" she smiled.

"Hey, Juliet!" a familiar voice called from above.

"NiGHTS! Oh thank goodness, NiGHTS I have awesome news!"

"Me first. Juliet…" NiGHTS flew down to the visitors' height, he had a grim expression, "The Dream Gate is gone… it fell apart a few nights ago."

"Oh no…" Juliet gasped.

"Owl and I are taking refuge in an old abandoned dream site. I hoped I'd never have to see that place again…"

"Hey, NiGHTS don't worry! I have _good news_! I found them NiGHTS! Your old friends!"

NiGHTS face lit up, "you did? They remember me? Oh my, it's been so long since I've seen them!" the jester shouted happily, bursting up into the air.

"Yeah, Will and Helen! We were at a party and… well I need to tell you about that too. But now you don't really need me anymore I guess!"

NiGHTS froze in the air, and his face went pale, "what?"

"I… I found your old friends… Will and Helen?"

"I… I don't know who that is…"

"But, they sure seem to know you?"

NiGHTS held his breath, "Really?"

"Uh...yes?"

NiGHTS flew back down to Juliet, "Hey, Juliet. I never asked you if you've ever wanted to fly. You know, if we dualize, you can fly around yourself! How cool is that!"

"NiGHTS I don't understand what's going on. I did what you asked me to do, why are you acting like this?"

"Acting like what?" NiGHTS chuckled, he had a big grin on his face, "come on, let's go fly together!" NiGHTS held his hand out to Juliet.

"Well, if you're not going to tell me what's going on, then I have more news. A group of kids attacked me at a party tonight. They seemed to be associated with the Dark Realm, and were talking of some guy named 'Nightmayr'."

"Nightmayr? No, it couldn't be." NiGHTS turned away, and rubbed his hands nervously.

"Do you know who that is, NiGHTS?"

"I… I really don't know. I'll need to do some investigating. For now, why don't you just spend some time in your nightopia. You deserve a peaceful night after what happened." NiGHTS flew away and left Juliet alone with the nightopians.

Juliet laid herself down in the flowers, taking all the different scents. She closed her eyes as the nightopians began to sing. A peaceful night is exactly what she wanted.


	11. Chapter 11

"_What was all that about, NiGHTS?" Claris asked her friend quietly, but at this point she wasn't expecting much of an answer._

"_It was nothing. Just another nightmaren trying to get to your ideya as all." NiGHTS shrugged and glanced around, "If that runt is out and about again, there could be more of them. Maybe it's best you wake up now and I'll make sure it's safe for tomorrow."_

"_Uh, NiGHTS… one more thing." _

"_What is it this time?" NiGHTS turned around and snapped. He stared at his friends uncomfortable expression and instantly felt regretful, "Ah… look, Claris, I'm sorry. A lot is going on, I just want to keep your dreams safe, you can ask me anything!" _

"_Why have you never told us about the Dream Gate…" Claris looked down, avoiding eye contact with NiGHTS as the words slipped out instantly. _

"_That place?" NiGHTS chuckled, "It's just not important! You know what goes on there? Nothing. And I'm being honest here. It's too quiet, except for_ _**one**_ _thing." He rolled his eyes. "It's a lot more fun here isn't it? The Nightopians are singing, the wind is blowing, and everything's so exciting!" NiGHTS was beaming at this point, Claris had forgotten how excited her friend could get over this place._

"_Well yeah but… I just feel like you've been keeping a lot from me that's all…"_

_NiGHTS' tone immediately turned sincere, and he flew down at eye level with his friend. "Everything I do, I do to help you and Elliot. I want you protect your dreams and keep you too safe, I would never keep anything from you that I think is important. You don't have to worry about anything...okay?"_

"_Okay… I trust you, NiGHTS. Could you do me one thing before I wake up? I promise it's the last thing I'll bother you about."_

"_Sure- what is it?"_

"_Who exactly is Jolten?"_

* * *

"Come on, 'mayr we didn't do _that _bad. We were so close to getting rid of the problem until _you_ showed up." Marcus sneered. He and the rest of the kids were all relaxing around the large throne where Nightmayr sat. The leader didn't look happy, that was for sure.

"But, did I ask you to do that? You all completely went against orders… orders that weren't even given! You do what I tell you too, _when_ I tell you too, are we clear?" Nightmayr was glaring straight at Marcus.

"Well, uh, sir. Marcus said it was okay for us to do it, after all he's basically the leader of our group. We just did what he told us to do, if anyone should really be punished here, it's him."

"Morgan!" Marcus stood up clenching his fists like he was about ready to beat the 12-year old up. Uma was standing over on the side, just chuckling to herself.

"Morgan… Morgan, Morgan, Morgan," Nightmayr shook his head in disappointment, "you all still should've known better, I'd think. You all going out there into the waking world was very dangerous, you know. You could've been found, and forced back to your awful lives from before… surely none of you want that? That's why you're here with me. As long as you're all here, nobody will ever hurt you again." All the kids exchanged guilty glances with each other as Nightmayr continued.

"Marcus… you were practically thrown out on the streets by your own family. Amazing how the people who dedicated their lives to raising you could turn on you over one small thing like, what, a sex change? Humans make no sense to me. You wouldn't have lasted 3 days out on the streets of that city if I didn't come and save you," Marcus looked down, crossing his arms, "Morgan, left all alone at such a young age after that terrible, terrible accident. Nobody would've wasted their time trying to heal a broken soul like yours. It's a good thing I found you or you would've still been family hopping the rest of your childhood." Morgan shut his eyes and inched closer to Marcus. "Uma… who nobody understood. You just wanted to be your own person, but no one let you do that would they? Such strict rules to live by, no time in the day for yourself. If it weren't for me, all that stress would've killed you by now, of course." Uma just grunted and looked away from Nightmayr's sneering. "I put all my time into giving you kids the best life, and I get… betrayed? As a father, this hurts me greatly, I expected more from _my kids_."

The room was silent, Nightmayr looked at the three sternly and Marcus shifted a bit, starting to feel uncomfortable and guilty.

"Now, then. I think you three need someone to keep you in line. She's new, so go easy on her. Despite her appearance she had a troubling personal life, and is now going to join us."

The front gate slammed open, and a small girl with two long blonde twintails strutted in. Behind her was a taller female, with a boney pale face and curly white hair that looked almost majestic. She nudged the smaller girl to tell her to go in, and she ran up the steps to the throne.

"Kids, meet Alice. She lived in Bellbridge before coming here, I trust you'll all treat her well."

"Wait, Bellbridge? Isn't that where that trash lives?" Marcus jeered.

Nightmayr just smirked, "Yes, in fact…." he gestured towards Alices, "Alice here even went to school with the new little brat."

Alice shrugged, "Yeah, the freak who was staring at my chest in the hallway? We're in different grades, I'm not much help there. I sure do know my way around the town, though."

"Great, now we know how to get to the cafe on our breaks," Uma retorted, Alice gave her a warning glare.

"Come now, kids. We're a family now! Let's start acting like one, hey?" Nightmayr smiled, pulling them all in for a big group hug, "We're all going to be so close by the end of all of this…."

* * *

"So, did you talk to NiGHTS last night?" Will whispered to Juliet as she took her seat in study hall.

"Yeah, about that…" Juliet looked down, not really sure how to explain what NiGHTS had said last night, "he said he doesn't know you two… I think I messed up big time," she sighed.

"What? How could he not know us?" Will laughed, "he was probably just joking around, he did that a lot."

"Aah, well… yeah that must've been it. I think he also knows something about that… Nightmayr. I wasn't able to get anything else out of him, though." she shrugged.

"Yeah, he was never one to 'spill the beans' I guess. He kept a lot of secrets from Helen and I, big ones too."

"How did you and Helen meet NiGHTS anyway…?" Juliet asked, she's been wondering about it nonstop since their discussion at the cafe.

"Well…" Will started, "we all met in Nightopia I guess, like you. NiGHTS needed help, and he found us. That's basically the story, not as big as yours probably."

"So you all met each other in Nightopia? Wow... " she gasped under her breath, "that's pretty cool that you two are friends in real life as well, then. How often do you two see each other?"

Will froze, "oh well, about that. Helen and I never actually… well… it's complicated."

"Oh.. were you two just too busy?"

"Well… no, not really. We forgot… about everything I guess. I mean Nightopia and all. NiGHTS, Owl, even meeting each other."

"What?!" Juliet said loudly, disrupting the silence in the classroom. God dammit, she did it again.

"I don't know," Will shrugged, "I haven't been there at all since I was 13, I don't know what happened that made us forget... I mean… I've seen Helen around uh… around town but.. I guess when we actually locked eyed everything suddenly came back. I still don't remember what happened in Nightopia, though."

"I wonder if that has anything to do with the way NiGHTS was acting…" Juliet was interrupted by the sound of the bell to dismiss class. Oh great, she thought, I got no work done.

"Wanna meet up in the library after school again?" Will asked.

"Sure, I've got nothing else to do I guess," Juliet laughed, and headed out of the classroom to her next class to see Alaia.

Juliet sat down next to Alaia, who was staring at her with tired eyes. She felt almost uncomfortable talking to her right now, but knew she had to. Alaia was her girlfriend, after all. Luckily for Juliet, Alaia spoke first.

"People have been on my case all day asking me about the party, I'm exhausted."

"Oh… you too, huh?" Juliet replied uncomfortably. She actually hadn't had anyone talk to her today about it. Juliet isn't noticed at school as much as Alaia is, and maybe people are too scared to approach her.

"Yeah…" Alaia grunted, laying down on her desk, "I probably haven't gotten it as bad as you though, huh. What happened after the party if you don't mind me asking…" she trailed off, then stared at Juliet with worrying eyes, "does this have to do with that dream thing? Are you in trouble?"

Juliet just laughed, she didn't want Alaia to worry too much. _She_ didn't want to worry too much…. but what else could even happen any way?

"Look, wanna meet up at Full Moon Cafe after school? We can catch up a bit and actually have a proper date for once without me somehow ruining it…" she chuckled, "I've been meaning to ask you there for a while and I guess now is as good of a time as any."

Alaia shot up excitedly, "Of course! And….we don't actually have to talk about what happened… I mean I'd love to be caught up and all but I don't want to force anything out of you.."

"Yeah…" Juliet said quietly as the teacher began to speak. She knew this all meant a lot to Alaia, but she didn't want her to get involved. If Juliet had known it was going to get this scary, she never would have brought it up with Alaia in the first place. If anything happened to Alaia because of her, she didn't know what she would do.

* * *

"Hoo, you don't look to good tonight. What's keeping you down?" Owl cooed, brushing his wings against NiGHTS face.

"What _not _keeping me down? Look at this place, Owl… it's all my fault."

"How exactly is it your fault? The Dream Gate was not meant to stand forever, you knew that, after all, you did make it."

"I didn't make it," NiGHTS buried his face in his sleeves, "I messed it up. It should've lasted longer… I didn't think about what would happen after defeating Wizeman, and now it's gone. So will the rest of Nightopia."

"Hoo, do not give up yet, young one! We still have the visitor t-"

"No," NiGHTS cut Owl off, "she didn't find who I wanted, now things are going to mess up even more. There's no hope, don't you see, Owl? Everything is my fault."

"Now, now! I do hate seeing you like this! Perhaps give the visitor another chance. Give the other visitors a chance, too. I know what had happened in the past was traumatic for you but, they may be the only help we can get at the moment."

"What, no hoo?" NiGHTS sighed.

"Hoo." Owl replied in a serious tone.

NiGHTS groaned, and sat up, levitating off the ground a bit, "Alright, I'll think about it and talk to Juliet. There's something else she mentioned to me that's been bothering me… Owl have you ever heard of Nightmayr?"

Owl shook his head, feathers falling to the ground. "Besides the opposite of dreams, I'm not sure I've heard that name anywhere else."

NiGHTS pouted, "Well, makes sense I guess. It's an old Nightmaren myth, Wizeman hated us talking about it and would punish those who even spoke that name." he shuddered, thinking back to the time Wizeman caught _him_ talking about it.

"Hoo, I say that's severe. What exactly is the myth? A Night Dimension story I have no heard of yet is very intriguing."

"Well… apparently long before Reala and I were created, Wizeman had...err.. _experiments_."

"Well, I know about those! Hoo, hoo! Many trial nightmarens were made and scrapped by the big fellow, correct?"

"No, no. Not those. I mean like, power experiments. Testing his power and junk. Thats when it's said he created Fryght, a huge god like creature that mimicked Wizeman in power and size, as if Wizeman made a direct copy of himself."

"But…. how is it that Wizeman was able to create giant powerful being, but was unsuccessful in creating smaller first levels?"

"That's the thing, Owl! It didn't work!" NiGHTS smirked, "The big guy totally screwed himself over! Fryght was destroyed easily, but apparently three parts of Fryght's core were separated and made into three separate beings… I don't really remember what happened after that but I do remember Nightmayr's name was associated with this myth in some way. I think this 'Nightmayr' might be one of Fryght's cores."

"Hoo my! What does this have to do with the present if this is a myth about the past?" Owl sounded intrigued, he loved dream world stories.

"I don't know… Juliet mentioned that name earlier. She mentioned a group of kids attacked her in the waking world and were associated with the Dark Realm in some way… I think we're in more trouble than we thought, Owl."

"I see… so what do you plan on doing about it?"

"I'm doing to do some investigating, mostly around the rest of the Dream Plaza… I think there might be something there."

Owl nodded, "I will keep my eye out for anything that could help, and perhaps try to talk to the visitor more."

NiGHTS and Owl nodded on it, and the two decided to sit together in silence the rest of the night.


	12. Chapter 12

**Sorry it's been a while since i've updated anything., my space bar got sticky and it was super tedious to type so it wasnt worth it aha**

**anyway i forgot about one little minor thing in the last chapter so if u wanna go back and re read it thatd be cool?/ its a REALLY small thing that i probably didnt even need to change since most people wouldnt have caught on to that plot hole anyway but it was bothering me so i did.**

**also i wrote more for certain things than i intended to and didnt get to put what else i wanted to in this chapter. ive been trying to speed things up since im REALLY bad at that and usually take my time but i dont know how long this is going to end up being at this point.**

**from now on chapters might end up being wayyy longer so i dont drag things on for too long, but that means even longer pauses between updates :/**

**ONE LAST THING ive had this cover photo for a long time but never colored it and i dont think im going to so...finally...take it**

* * *

_NiGHTS crossed his arms and sighed, "Alright since I promised I'd answer, I'll try to explain it as simple as possible…"_

_Claris sat down and looked up at NiGHTS with an eager expression. Finally, her friend was going to honestly answer one of her many questions, and she was glad to know she could still trust him even after the things Jolten had told her._

_"Jolten was… how do I put this…" NiGHTS looked away and tapped his face thinking of the words to use, "a failed version of me."_

_Claris cocked her head, "Jolten is supposed to be you? They don't really seem like it…"_

_NiGHTS laughed, "Of course! There can only be one me, I'm the best!"_

_Claris chuckled back, but quickly tried to settle the jester down as he began flying around confidently, "getting...back on the subject. How is Jolten a failed...you?"_

_"Well, Wizeman may be big and scary but he's not perfect. No one is. Wizeman found that out the hard way."_

_"Wizeman… failed?"_

_"In a way, yes!" NiGHTS grinned, the thought of Wizeman not being as great as he makes himself out to be made him giddy. "Before Reala and I were created, Wizeman of course had to experiment in order to create the perfect nightmaren, and that's what Jolten is."_

_"Jolten's an experiment? They didn't seem, uh, failed to me…" Claris scratched her head. Now that she thought about it, Jolten didn't dualize with her, and refused to really say why. Is that why they're a failure?_

_"I mean, I wasn't around when Jolten was scrapped, so I don't know the details. Most failures were destroyed after creation, but for some reason Wizeman let that nuisance hang around."_

_"They way you talk about them makes it seem like you had some kind of fight with them before… what happened between you two?"_

_NiGHTS shrugged, starting to get annoyed with the questions again. "Look, that's kinda personal, isn't it? Besides," he pointed to the alarm egg in the distance that was searching around, "it's about time for you to wake up anyway."_

_Claris looked sadly over to the alarm egg dancing towards her. This was the first time she actually wanted to leave instead of protesting to stay, and she felt awful about it. She felt guilty over having NiGHTS babysit her all the time, she's sure he doesn't have to do that with Elliot. Was NiGHTS annoyed with her? Probably… maybe she shouldn't even dream anymore._

* * *

Juliet walked by the cafe to meet Alaia, figuring they'd meet outside and head in together. She stood there awkwardly for about 5 minutes until she heard banging on the window, and Alaia desperately gesturing her to come inside.

"Oh, you're already here," Juliet laughed, feeling even more awkward than before.

"Well, I was going to wait outside for you but one of the workers told me to come inside since it's cold out. She was very nice, interesting hair too."

Juliet shrugged, "It's not that cold out. I guess it's nice to see someone be that concerned, though." _Hard to come across lately…_

Their thoughts were interrupted by one of the waitresses placing a cup of _chocolat chaud_ (for some reason everything on the menu is in French, probably to make the run down place seem fancier than it is, Juliet thought) in front of Alaia.

"Thank you! Sorry, I went ahead and got something to pass time since I didn't know how long you were going to take. Hope you're not offended!"

"Not at all," Juliet smiled, a bit embarrassed.

"How about I get you something too?" The lady smiled at Juliet. Juliet stumbled on her words, she hadn't thought about what she was going to get. Don't screw this up, don't screw this up.

"I'll just have the same thing…."

The waitress nodded and left the two alone again.

"She was the one who summoned me inside. She's nice... almost too nice if you ask me." Alaia mentioned, taking a sip of her drink.

Juliet nodded as the waitress returned with another cup of _chocolat chaud_ (honestly this is getting tiring) and placed it in front of Juliet. "Anything else for you two?"

"Not right now, thank you." Alaia smiled.

Juliet's eyes focused on a poster hanging up on the cafe's wall. It said 'Dreamer's Night' in big text, and a picture of a lady she recognized as the person serving them.

"Is that you?" She pointed at the poster and looked up at the waitress, who smiled and chuckled to herself.

"Oh that? That's kind of old... God knows why it's still up there. We haven't done spring cleaning in a while."

"So you're a singer?" Juliet questioned.

"Used to be. It was an old dream. I've worked here a while, but it wasn't enough to make living on my own at the time so I used to sing here on Friday nights for a little extra cash. I stopped though, since I didn't really need to."

"Well, I think you should do it again…" the waitress looked at Juliet oddly, "You mentioned it was an old dream but… I'm sure there's still part of you that wants to pursue it, right? You shouldn't give up on something you love just because you don't need to anymore…!" Juliet trailed off, realizing she went off preaching to a girl she didn't even know. How embarrassed Alaia must feel right now.

The waitress chuckled, "I like you… you remind me of a friend I once knew. What's your name?"

"Uh... it's Juliet…"

"Thank you, Juliet. In a span of 3 minutes you've managed to convince me," she smiled, "I'll talk to the manager and see if I can sing here again this Friday. I'd love to see you there."

Juliet turned red, "Of course I will, I wouldn't miss getting to see that!"

"Then it's settled," she winked, "I'm Claris by the way. I'll see you Friday."

* * *

"Wonder where NiGHTS is…" Juliet muttered to herself as she walked around her Nightopia. There were significantly less nightopians playing in the flowers tonight than usual, but Juliet didn't think much of it. There was probably a new more exciting Nightopia that opened up or something, way better than hers at least.

She peered off into the distance and saw a figure in the grass. It was sitting, and looking off towards the big pool of water in the heart of the dream, paying no attention to Juliet's presence.

Offended that another person was in her personal world giving no regards to her, she started shouting and marching towards it. "Excuse me? Hello? Who are you and what are you doing here? I see you ignoring me!"

As she got closer, the figure turned around and grinned at her, and Juliet recognized it to be the boy from the party. Her heart sank.

"I was wonderin' when you were gonna get here. I was getting kinda bored." He sneered. "Anyway," he continued standing up, "let's get down to business."

Juliet instinctively jumped back, "Don't you _dare_ do anything mean!"

"Mean? Even your vocabulary is weak. Anyway, I'm just here to talk."

"To… talk?"

Marcus got closer to her, "Look, you're a cute girl. A lot cuter than I was. So… how about you give this whole 'hope hero' thing up so I don't gotta hurt you? It's a win-win situation really. You get to stay alive, and Nightmayr gets to take over this place. How does that sound to you?"

"That's not a win-win situation at all!" Juliet argued, "I don't care what you and this Nightmayr guy want but if NiGHTS and Owl will get hurt from it then it's not happening!"

Marcus frowned, "Here I thought you would be nice and cooperate. I'm trying to help you here. You'll only be in the way, and you'll only get hurt." He moved in even closer to Juliet now. "I'd just hate to see something bad happen to you. You're nice, y'know?"

Juliet stepped away from him, "Why do you even _want_ to do this? Why don't you want to _help_ people and do _good_ things? By the sound of it, Nightmayr isn't really a great guy."

Marcus' attitude immediately transformed, and now he was almost snarling, "What did people ever to do for me that was good? Nightmayr's the only one who ever showed care towards me, of course I'm going to help him! He wanted me when no one else would, I could care less what happens to anyone else as long as he's happy!"

"I'm sorry… I didn't know but…"

"Doesn't matter anymore. If you wanna stay and help your flying imaginary friend go ahead, but don't say I didn't warn you!" With that, Marcus vanished, and Juliet was left all alone again.

It didn't matter what he said. Just like Marcus wants to help Nightmayr, Juliet wants to help NiGHTS. It didn't matter what she had to do, or what she has to endure to do it, but she knew she had to.


	13. Chapter 13

**tfw back story is longer than main story**

**anyway after revising my outline a bit i can confirm that after this chapters are going to be a lot longer to fit more in. yoiks. **

* * *

_Memory Forest was always Helen's favorite Nightopia to be in. She wasn't sure if it was the comforting feeling the dense forest gave, or the lively Nightopians always playing their music in the mossy concert hall, but whatever it was she just loved being there._

_NiGHTS was gone, he said he had to do some nightopian census every century or something, but Helen didn't really believe him. No matter, it gave her some time to be alone and reflect on certain things._

_The Nightopians were singing a slow paced tune, which made Helen a little drowsy even though she was already asleep. Everything was peaceful, and stayed peaceful._

_Something struck Helen's attention, however. A strangely colored Deworm floated by, completely ignoring her and the rest of the Nightopians. It wasn't strange that a Nightmaren was here, even after Wizeman vanished Nightmaren would still roam Nightopias. It was a natural...circle of life I guess you could say. It was the fact this Nightmaren acted, and even** looked** different from the rest. Curious, Helen decided to follow it._

_It didn't do anything out of the ordinary. It just kinda… wandered around. It almost seemed lost. Helen decided to approach it slowly, she didn't want to hurt it, but maybe she could help it? Suddenly the Deworm turned back to see Helen, and it immediately created a wormhole. Helen was caught off guard by its sudden act of defense and fell right into it._

_Helen opened her eyes to see she was no longer in the familiar Memory Forest._

_Somehow that Deworm had sent her to a completely different location in the dream world, but it didn't look like a Nightopia. It looked like the Dream Gate, only much larger, and more developed._

_**A… castle?** Helen thought. **Is there some kind of dream royalty here? **The thought of some beautiful dream princess made Helen giddy._

_Helen's hands suddenly starting to emit a bright ruby glow, but it felt different… like someone was summoning it. She looked back up at the castle, and her ideya began glowing brighter. Something was definitely calling her. She decided to follow her instincts and head inside the castle, but she was a little nervous to._

_**Maybe I should wait for NiGHTS… this doesn't seem like something I should be doing…** Helen's thoughts were cut off by another sensation that she couldn't describe, but it was almost as if whatever was calling her was saying "No, No!"_

_The corridors were long, and the castle was obviously abandoned. It made Helen uncomfortable at the thought of being alone in this huge place, but the feelings she was getting made her remember that she's not._

_Her ideya glowed as she passed skinny spiral staircase, telling her she should go up them. Helen almost didn't want to, the stairs looked old, and she was afraid they would break from right under her, but she obeyed and began climbing them very slowly. At the top was another long hallway that led to two large black wooden doors that almost looked new. Now more curiously instead of instinctively the dreamer approached them, and she could almost hear a voice in her head saying "Yes, yes!"_

_Helen pushed open the doors, which were a lot heavier than they looked. Helen looked inside and was surprised to see Will standing there too._

_"What- Will? Were… you the one calling me?"_

_"What? No! Were **you **calling **me**?" He asked defensively._

_"No way! I mean…" Helen glanced around the room again. It was almost empty, apart from a small locked box inside a glass casing. It looked pretty important to her. "What's that?"_

_Will shrugged, "Like I know. Should we open it?"_

_"How?" Helen had already begun picking the glass casing up, "It's locked."_

_"Not for long," Will said smugly, "Do you have a hair pin?"_

_"Just my barrette," She replied, taking it off and handing it to him, "I didn't know you could pick locks…"_

_"Well it's not like I go around introducing myself by saying 'Hi, I'm Will. I can pick locks," he joked taking her barrette, "This **might** work, gimmie a bit."_

_Helen stepped back and began to examine the room a bit more. There weren't any windows, and the shaping of the walls showed it had to be a tower of some sort. But what was calling her here?_

_"Done." Will said, giving Helen her barrette back._

_"So, what's inside?" Helen asked eagerly, jumping up to the box._

_"'Dunno. Some kind of ball."_

_"It looks like an orb!" Helen said excitedly, "I think we just found treasure! We should tell NiGHTS!"_

_**No** a voice said, almost demanding. Helen held her head, and looked to see Will was doing the same thing. Was the orb speaking to them through telepathy?_

_**Let me introduce myself,** the voice started, **my name is Twylight**._

_"Twylight? What are you?" Helen looked down at the orb, which was starting to glow._

_**I am a friend, and I need your help. I have been trapped inside this orb for many centuries. I had almost succeeded in escaping a few years ago, but your friend had locked me away so I couldn't.**_

_"NiGHTS? Why would he do that? I thought NiGHTS liked helping people…" Will said sadly._

_"What can we do to help you?"_

_**You can- drat! Stop talking, stop talking!**_

_Helen was confused. Stop talking? What did Twylight mean?_

_"What are you two doing here?" NiGHTS shouted angrily, standing in the doorway._

_"NiGHTS? I thought you were-"_

_"Be quiet, Helen! **What** **are you two doing here?**" NiGHTS was gritting his teeth, and in the 2 years Helen had known NiGHTS she had **never** seen him so angry before._

_"I don't know!" Helen said truthfully, "There was a weird Deworm and then the next thing I know I'm in this weird Dream Gate place and this voice is summoning me inside the castle! Now I'm here!"_

_NiGHTS pointed to the orb, which was still sitting silently inside of the chest, "Why is **that** opened?"_

_"Calm down, NiGHTS!" Will pleaded, "We didn't touch anything, see? What I want to know is why this orb is here in the first place. Why would you lock it up? Someone is trapped in it!"_

_This caught NiGHTS off guard, this he was unaware of. "...Inside it? Impossible! If something was trapped in there I would've been able to tell. Besides, what's in it? A visitor? A Nightmaren? An octopaw?" Now his anger was turning into sass. "It doesn't matter. I'm taking it and finding a better place to keep it. You two have no idea what it is, and you shouldn't be up here anyway."_

_NiGHTS started flying towards the box, but Helen ran to it faster and grabbed the orb. The orb started glowing in her hand again, and it felt… warm, as if it was alive. "I don't think you know what it is either, NiGHTS. We're your friends, can't you trust us? **We** trust **you!**"_

_"Helen," NiGHTS moved in closer to the dreamer, "give it to me."_

_NiGHTS reached out his hand to take it from her, but Helen ducked and threw it to Will, "Will, catch!"_

_Will caught it, and NiGHTS turned around to fly towards him. He panicked, and chucked it back to Helen. "Nightmaren in the middle!" He shouted._

_The two played keep away with NiGHTS for a few throws more, and NiGHTS was starting to really lose himself, and he could feel it. "You two…!" He growled._

_**NiGHTS… calm down. Don't lose it. **He thought to himself. **Don't make the same mistake again.**_

_NiGHTS was about to catch the orb in the air, but his thoughts distracted him and he hesitated for a brief moment. Will let the orb drop to the ground before kicking it over to Helen. NiGHTS went back into nightmaren mode and swooped after the orb, knocking into the girl. The two fell over, both missing the orb, and it hit the ground hard completely shattering._

_All three of them stared as a dark mist emitted from the shattered cell. Helen could almost hear someone laughing in her head._

_**Did… we do it? Where's Twylight? **Helen wondered to herself._

_NiGHTS looked down at the broken orb with an empty expression. Why did NiGHTS care so much about this orb?_

_"We were supposed to hide this orb…. I was supposed to hide it. How did…." NiGHTS bent over and picked up the shattered pieces in his hand, "**I'm sorry Claris…**"_

_"Sorry, NiGHTS… it was an accident." Will said regretfully, "Maybe there's a way to fix it?"_

_"Be quiet!" NiGHTS snapped, the nightmaren quickly transformed his personality. Helen was almost scared to look him in the eyes. The happy, fun, bubbly NiGHTS they knew before was now a growling, terrifying nightmare in front of them. This couldn't be the same friend they had just been with in Nightopia._

_NiGHTS, unable to control his inner temper lashed out at the two. Helen couldn't see what was happening, but she knew NiGHTS had attacked in some way. The last thing she saw before waking up was NiGHTS rushing up to her scowling, and if Helen wasn't convinced he was a nightmaren before she sure was now._

* * *

"Oh, NiGHTS there you are!" Juliet ran up to her friend, who was playing some music to calm some Nightopians down. "I was looking for you!"

"You were?" NiGHTS chuckled, "Oh right, of course you were."

"So did you figure anything out? About Nightmayr?"

"No…" NiGHTS sighed, putting down his hands and sending the Nightopian off, "I checked some old places where I thought I'd find something but I came out empty handed. What about you?"

"Well there's not much I can do investigation wise when I'm awake but, I did run into one of those Dark Realm kids a while ago," Juliet tapped her chin, maybe it wasn't a good idea to tell NiGHTS about their encounter.

"You did, what happened? Are you alright?" NiGHTS got close to Juliet in concern.

Juliet flinched and stepped back, "Yeah! He didn't hurt me but, he threatened me to step off. I think his name was Marcus if I remember from the party."

"I see. They're more than aware of your presence… however this Nightmayr guy is. I think we need to be prepared for anything, Juliet." NiGHTS confirmed confidently.

"Yeah… it was weird, though. I think Marcus sees Nightmayr as some kind of guardian angel. I know it seems like they're planning bad things but by the way the kid talked about him… has me reconsidering his intentions."

"Look," NiGHTS sighed, putting his hands on his hips, "whenever the Dark Realm is involved there's never anything good about it. There's no way I'll believe anything this visitor says about him. I already know they're bad news, all of them."

NiGHTS was interrupted by a loud grumbling noise from over the plains, and immediately went into defense mode.

"What was that?" Juliet yelped, looking over into the direction of the noise. A large shadow loomed over the peaceful plains and many nightopians scattered away.

"I don't think Marcus is the only thing Nightmayr planned to send out tonight. It's coming from the lake- let's go!" NiGHTS flew away quickly without hesitation, and Juliet sprinted behind him running out of breath.

NiGHTS and Juliet stopped right at the end of the lake, and Juliet knew by NiGHTS' determined expression that something was underneath the water.

Before she knew it, Juliet found herself in a different location. The lake from her dream was now a muddy, disgusting swamp in the center of a creepy looking forest. Chills ran down her spine.

"I was wondering when they were going to send you lot. Bad for you, I'm in a fighting mood right now!"

"Fight? NiGHTS I can't fight!" Juliet yelled.

"Not like _that_ you can't." NiGHTS smiled down at the girl, but again was interrupted by the loud grumbling from the swamp.

A large crocodile nightmaren crawled out from the muddy water. It was greyish blue in color, and had large hungry slit eyes that stared right at Juliet.

"Juliet, you have to dualize with me now!" NiGHTS held his hand out to the dreamer, motioning for her to touch it.

"What? You're going to hold me hand, are you mocking me?" The dreamer asked offendedly.

"No- no! Remember what I mentioned before, well, quickly mentioned before? Take me hand, our bodies will become one, and we can fight this thing together!"

Juliet stared up at NiGHTS' eager expression, and she could tell it's been a long time since he's been able to do this. She decided to satisfy NiGHTS' wishes, and took his hand. There was a bright light, that blinded Juliet for a split second before she found herself looking down at the large crocodile from NiGHTS' point of view.

"Incredible.." Juliet gasped.

"Ready to take off?" NiGHTS exclaimed, it's your first time dualizing so I'll help steer. You'll the hang of it in no time, though!"

"Okay but let's just… not go too high!"

"No need to!" NiGHTS grinned with determination, and flung himself towards the 2nd level nightmaren. "Alright, big guy. Ready to take a dive?" The duo rammed into the crocodile to get his attention, who in return spun around to find them, creating a large splash with his tail.

"We need to get him on his side," NiGHTS explained, "Crocile's weakness is his stomach."

"Crocile…? NiGHTS do you know him?" Juliet's question was unheard by NiGHTS, and he already flew ahead below the large nightmaren trying to use his own strength to flip him over.

"This is no good, he's too big to flip over. Got any ideas, Juliet?"

"Actually… yes I do!"

"The fields all yours then!" In an instant, Juliet had full control over her and NiGHTS' actions. It took a while to focus herself into the right flying position, but she quickly got the hang of it. Juliet began to fly in circles around Crocile, which caused him to spin around in frustration trying to catch them. Crocile finally showed signs of dizziness from spinning for so long, and Juliet decided it was time to go in for the kill. She flew above Crocile, and he fell over from loss of balance.

"All yours, NiGHTS." She said proudly.

"Nope, all _ours._" NiGHTS smiled. The two flew down to the nightmarens stomach and gave it a big paraloop. Crocile roared in defeat, and disappeared into the swamp. A bright light emitted from the bubbles he left, and NiGHTS and Juliet knew their work was done.

The nightmarish world transformed back into Juliet's familiar Nightopia, and at the foot of the lake was a small white light.

"Your Ideya of purity was within the heart of the nightopia, go on!" NiGHTS pushed the dreamer forward. Juliet stared at the ideya for a while, and cupped it in her hands.

So this is ideya… _my_ ideya. _My purity… _


	14. Chapter 14

_"Owl, what have I done?" NiGHTS croaked. He was sitting on the steps outside of the castle, being comforted by his feathered friend._

_"You lost control of yourself… again." Owl sighed, "It's alright. You knew this wouldn't last forever, they never do with you."_

_"But why… do I let that part of me so easily escape? I thought, after deciding that's not who I wanted to be I could've… gotten rid of it." The scared nightmaren shook his head in confusion and worry._

_"Hoo, well, I'm sure they'll come back. You're all friends, right? I think you all just need to talk. I'm rather curious about this orb myself but, ah, well I guess there's nothing more we can find out about now."_

_NiGHTS scrunched his face up, and pulling his body in closer, "No, we can't talk. I- I didn't want the same thing to happen with them as it did with Claris. I can't let their last thought of me be of a monster, it's not who I am…"_

_Owl perched himself besides NiGHTS and sat in silence, waiting for him to continue. Though, the old bird had already figured out where this was going._

_"I did something… bad. I broke nightmaren code. I forced them awake, they won't remember anything… they'll never come back here. I'll never scare them again." He held his breath, waiting for Owl to begin scolding him on his carelessness. Instead, he was just returned with more silence from his now only friend._

_"Then I suppose things are going to be a bit lonely around here, once again." Owl finally broke the silence, "I can tell you don't wish to talk anymore but I must ask, why were you so protective of that orb?"_

_NiGHTS shrugged and turned away, "I guess it just… reminded me of Claris, that's all. I wanted to protect it for her sake… and to make sure no other nightmaren like Jolten came after it. It's funny," he laughed, "every time I've messed up it's always involved that orb. Maybe it's a good thing it's destroyed now." NiGHTS flew up, loosening his body a bit after holding so much tension in it, getting ready to take off like usual._

_"Hoo! Well, what are you going to do now?"_

_"Find some new visitors to help- and I'm **not** going to mess up this time!"_

* * *

"So, do you feel any different?" NiGHTS asked eagerly. Earlier, he and Juliet had defeated their first nightmaren together, and Juliet has reclaimed her lost Ideya of purity, which she didn't even know she was losing.

Juliet had so many questions now about NiGHTS and the dream world itself. What just happened? She was NiGHTS… but at the same time she was flying! She was flying… how could she do that? "I mean… I don't really have words... " she gasped.

"But now that you've recovered your ideya of purity you should feel even stronger now! We need to find your other ideya too before those no good nightmarens get to them."

Juliet looked around her nightopia, nothing seemed different. Did that ideya even do anything? She didn't feel different, but I guess she couldn'tve missed what she didn't know she lost, or even had to begin with. How were they supposed to find the other ideya she was missing?

"I think it's time you got out of this place and stretched your legs a bit elsewhere." NiGHTS recommended. "I was a bit apprehensive to take you to where me and Owl have been since the Dream Gate collapsed, but I guess since you're getting stronger it could be of great help you have you around there!"

"Oh? Is it another Nightopia?" Juliet asked excitedly.

"Not quite, it's very similar to the Dream Gate but… not as calming in my opinion," the nightmaren crossed his arms and pouted. He flew down to Juliet's height and extended his arm, "shall we go?"

Juliet stared at the inviting gesture before her, and recalled how she felt when they dualized earlier. I was exciting, but also uncomfortable. Juliet didn't like the idea of becoming another person, and felt as if she was betraying her own self. However, she can't fly. So forgetting all the deep stuff she was previously thinking, she touched NiGHTS hand with her own.

NiGHTS took Juliet to the Dream Plaza, and undualized with her when they met up with Owl.

"I say, I was wondering when you were going to bring the Visitor here! It was getting a little lonely." Owl cooed.

"Lonely? What am I, chopped shleep? Anyway, I'm going to show Juliet around so you don't bore her to death, old bird!" NiGHTS teased his long time friend.

Owl ruffled his wings offendedly, "I know much more about this place than you do, young one! You didn't even know this place existed until 11 years ago!"

NiGHTS sighed in defeat, "Alright you win… I'll let you give Juliet the tour," he looked Owl in the eye and grinned, "if you can catch us!" He swooped up Juliet in his arms and took off, causing the owl to lose several feathers from the large gust of twinkle dust he created.

"Wasn't that a little rude?" Juliet asked NiGHTS as they stopped at a small circle at the end of one of the many paths. "I kind of like Owl…"

"You do?" NiGHTS asked in shocked, "I mean, what I meant was… Owl and go way back, he was my first friend in Nightopia when I-" he paused and looked at Juliet, who was listening to him very attentively, "when I just didn't have anywhere else to go to. It's just friendly teasing, he enjoys it. I mean he hasn't kicked me out yet, right?"

Juliet chuckled, "I guess not." She looked around the small clearing they were now in. The ground was cobblestone like in the Dream Gate, but more define and cleaner. She could hear the trickling of a nearby stream and the rustling of the leaves from the tall trees towering over that blocked all sunlight from emitting inside. There was a large statue in the center of the clearing which Juliet couldn't quite make out who are what it was supposed to be, but it sure looked mystical. She walked up to it and stared at the worn away plaque on the base.

"Hey NiGHTS, where are we right now?"

"Right now we're at the Dream Plaza. Apparently many years ago it was very lively, and visitors could chat and share dreams together within the plaza. Unlike the Dream Gate, which it's unheard of for visitors to meet one another within dreams… and if they do… things never work out," he sighed.

"Why choose the Dream Gate over the Plaza? I mean, no offense, but compared to what you just told me the Dream Gate seems rather boring."

NiGHTS shrugged, "Dunno, I never visited the Dream Plaza while it was lively, I came around during the time of the rusty old Gate. If I had to guess I'd say it had to do with the sudden activity of the nightmarens around 11 years ago. It was probably unsafe to have all the visitors together in one area so they had to make it harder for the nightmarens to destroy their nightopia."

Juliet nodded, "then I take it that you're a nightmaren too, right?"

NiGHTS flinched, he's never had a dreamer so bluntly point it out, or even figure it out themselves. He hesitated to respond but Juliet didn't seem bothered or concerned, just curious. "Yes," he replied calmly, "I am a nightmaren too…"

"Yeah, I kinda figured it out a while ago. Don't worry, I'm not going to abandon you because of that… I trust you, NiGHTS."

The now revealed nightmaren smiled, "Thanks Juliet, I trust you too. Were going to kick some nightmare butt together, right?"

"Yeah!" Juliet shot up, clenching her fists in determination.

A bright light circled the clearing, and NiGHTS stood defensively not sure what was happening. Two large doors erupted from the light from the ground, rooting themselves in place. They are similar in appearance to the doors from the Dream Gate Juliet was once pushed into, however they seemed much more gothic and regal. The doors were black wooded, and the stained glass above covered the entire top of the frame. Juliet could make out the lilac fields in the stained glass from the first door, but the second one was unfamiliar to her. It looked like a forest of some kind.

"Doors to Nightopia? Of course!" NiGHTS shouted, "I was wondering where the entrance to Nightopia was around here. I guess it took a while to warm up to you, is all. Come on, let's go check out your new nightopia!"

"Wait, new nightopia? What about Lilac Plains?"

"Well you're not going to have the same dream _all_ the time. You'd have to be pretty boring to pull that off. We've got to recover your other ideya ASAP as you visitors would say. I'll meet you in there!" and with that, NiGHTS flew away into the door leaving Juliet all by herself.

NiGHTS was a good friend. He was always so cheerful and helpful. Juliet struggled to think of him as a real nightmaren… scaring people and stealing these 'ideya'. It just wasn't him… he wasn't a nightmaren. He was NiGHTS, and he was her friend.

The new door glittered, and Juliet could feel it beckoning for her to go inside. Each Nightopia she creates is a reflection of herself, her deepest desires. What would this one have in store for her? She stepped forward and pulled the large black doors open, and she felt herself falling into her new dream.

The new world was a large forest, with trees that looked as tall as skyscrapers. Several of the trees were hollowed out with small holes along the sides which she could see nightopians flying in and out of. Several paths winded around leading deep into the woods, with pretty colorful markers along the sides, like the ones you would follow if you had gotten lost while taking a hike.

The scenery reminded Juliet of the woods her family would hike in when she was younger. Those family hikes were the start of her love for adventure and nature, and she hadd almost forgotten until now.

"Hey, Juliet! Looks like those nightopians in the trees found something, wanna go check it out?" NiGHTS flew down and asked, beckoning for Juliet to dualize with him once again.

"S-sure!" she stuttered after being startled by NiGHTS' sudden appearance. Her eyes glazed over the tall trees. Juliet wasn't a fan of heights, but as long as NiGHTS was with her she would be alright.

The two dualized and flew up to where a group of nightopians were huddled around one of the many large branches. The branches were long and thick, and seemed to connect to the next like bridges. It was another path to take in the trees rather than the ground.

"So what do you think they're all babbling about?" NiGHTS asked Juliet.

"Not sure… looks like the found some kind of treasure, though."

"Looks like these trees are filled with treasure, we should try to find some ourselves!" NiGHTS was about to take off, but Juliet flinches.

"I dunno, I've been asleep for a while… even though I don't have school today I should probably wake up. I don't want to waste the entire day napping."

"What do you mean 'waste'?" NiGHTS joked, looking rather offended. Juliet chuckled, but bid her friend farewell as they undualized. She probably could have stayed longer, but she wanted to do some research about the kids who have gone missing recently. Somehow she felt it was all connected.

* * *

When Juliet woke up, she immediately went to work. She completely broke her own code by not even changing out of her pajamas and skipping breakfast. There were news sites dedicated to reporting this missing children epidemic. There were so many, it made Juliet feel sick to see. She began printing out ones that were most recent and relevant, all victims were aged 11 through 17 and all seemed to have past cases of some form of trauma or illness, which made her feel even more sick to see.

She didn't recognize any of the kids from the party, but there was one that had caught her attention. The name was Marina Krueger, a 16 year old from New York City. They had gone missing sometime around last year, but there isn't much info about the day they vanished. Apparently the family didn't even report their disappearance until a few months ago. However, one thing about this individual caught Juliet's attention, and it was that their left eye was covered, clearly on purpose.

It had to be Marcus.

Now this article made Juliet feel even more sick than she already was before. She was even more convinced that this was connected to Nightmayr. No, she wasn't convinced. She was certain. Juliet quickly ran to grab her phone, a bit out of breath from the panic she was in. Her fingers were shaking too much to text, but she didn't want to call either.

**You: a re you there**

**Will: yeah, everything okay?**

**You: get hhelen nd meet me at the cafe **

**Will: gotcha. **

She put her phone down on her bed and sat on her floor trying to calm down. She wasn't sure why she was panicking, it wasn't going to do her any good. How was she supposed to stop Nightmayr and help everyone if she can't even help herself?


	15. Chapter 15

_"__Helen, this place is a mess! What even happened in here?" Mrs. Cartwright was standing in the doorway to Helen's room, scolding her daughter who was laying on her bed playing Bejeweled on her phone. _

_"__Who cares, it's my room. Not like anyone comes up here anyway."_

_"__If you still want to have your friends over for your 16th birthday next week they will. I'm going shopping, you better have this room at least started by the time I get home." Her moms eyes glazed over the violin that was laying on the floor out of its case. How could her daughter have gotten so careless. She walked over and picked it up, "You need to take better care of your things, Helen. This violin is important, you shouldn't leave it lying around."_

_"__Important to you maybe," Helen sighed, continuing to play her smart phone app, "I was practicing earlier and forgot to put it away. Is that really such a big deal?"_

_"__Guess not." Her mom gently placed the violin back in its case, "remember, by the time I get home-"_

_"__I know, I know." Helen grunted, turning on her other side away from her mom, who then left her daughter alone. She waited until she heard her mother's footsteps fade away and the front door slam shut before getting up and turning on her laptop. If she was going to clean, may as well have some company. She opened up skype and clicked on her conversation with her friend, Mary Anderson, and went to call with her. The phone rang a couple of times before Mary answered._

_"__Woah, nice color. Did you dye it?" Helen asked, noticing her friends new long curly snow white hair._

_Mary, being her usual egotistical self, flipped her hair back and blushed, "Yeah, it was my friends idea. He said I'd look good in it. And we match now, too." _

_"__Oh, who's the lucky guy?" Helen winked, "You must be pretty into him to let him control your hair color like that."_

_"__It's not like that!" Mary laughed, "He said it suits me better. Besides, I do__feel rather confident with it. Anyway, what's up?"_

_Helen rolled her eyes, "Moms been on my case about cleaning my room or else I can't have my party next week. Seriously, who does she think she is?"_

_"__Uh… your mother? Anyway I got you, girl. If it's company you want it's company you got." _

_"__I don't see why my mom doesn't just hire a cleaning lady like your family does. It's so annoying how my mom expects me to do __**everything.**__I'm only 15, I need time to have fun too!" Helen pulled out a box from her closet and started throwing things on her floor into it. _

_"__Eh, it's not that great. I get uncomfortable with the idea of someone I don't know rummaging around my room. Like, that's personal stuff y'know? It's enough my dad sneaks in here while I'm at school to go through all my things. Jesus, you'd think he thinks I'm hiding drugs in here or something."_

_"__Well….aren't you?" Helen chuckled._

_"__Sweetie, I'm smarter than that. Only an idiot hides drugs in their own room." Mary kicked back in her seat, "So anyway, big 16 next week huh? That's going to be fun."_

_"__Yeah," Helen replied, picking up clothes on her floor and dumping them into the hamper, not even bothering to check if they were clean or not, "I still wish you could come."_

_"__Hey what can I say, life's an ass. Gotta deal." _

_Helen laughed, and took out another basket from her closet, "Dang, I really need to actually go through some stuff in here. This craps like… ancient." _

_"__Go through it now, I wanna see some embarrassing Helen stuff from the good ol' days." Mary inched closer to her webcam, clearly intrigued._

_Helen took the basket and dumped it out on her floor. Most of it was old pictures and music sheets which had been so filled up with doodles you couldn't read the score anymore, but one thing did catch Helen's eye. It was an old diary of hers, the front labeled, "Helen's Dream Diary". _

_"__Oh god," Helen laughed, "I found my old dream diary."_

_"__**This**__is gonna be good, read me some." _

_"__I don't know," she flipped through the pages, some had little drawings on them to go with the dream. "I had such a big imagination when I was a kid, wow." _

_"__Come on, I'm falling asleep over here! Read me something!" Mary snapped, in a demanding tone._

_"__Alright, alright! Uh, here's one. It's just titled 'Aqua Garden'..." Helen began to read the diary entry out loud, and pronounced half of the words she didn't understand incorrectly. The entry was apparently about her and this friend called 'NiGHTS' going to explore some underwater place. She didn't understand what half of it meant, but it probably made sense to her 12 year old self at the time. "I actually kind of remember this, I wrote about me and NiGHTS playing together all the time… I guess he was kind of like an imaginary friend."_

_"__You seem to be getting pretty nostalgic… maybe I should go." Mary smiled. _

_"__No! It's fine." Helen closed the diary and through it on her bed, "I'll read it later, maybe I'll ask my mom if she even remembers it, too." _

_Helen continued to clean through her room and chat with Mary the rest of the day until her mom came home. She turned off her laptop, threw it on her bed before doing the same with herself. _

_"__I'm home, how does chicken for dinner sound tonight?" Her mom barged in and began looking around her room, "Wow, look at you! I knew you could do it, don't you feel better now that your room is cleaned?"_

_Helen shrugged, "I guess. Can I still have my party next week?"_

_"__Of course. Dinner will be ready in about an hour, I'll come get you when it's done."_

_"__Sounds good," Helen replied as her mom closed her door. She went to grab her phone to finish up that level of Bejeweled she started this morning, but her hand gravitated towards her old dream diary. She sighed and picked it up, made herself comfortable and opened up to the first page titled 'NiGHTS'._

* * *

After NiGHTS and Juliet discovered the entrance to Nightopia, he wanted to see what else was around this plaza. He had never really explored it, in fact he wanted to stay as far away from it as possible. But now, since there was no where else to go he figured what's the harm. NiGHTS went up and down paths for what would have felt like hours in the waking world, but found nothing of interest. The only place he hadn't explored was the castle in the heart of the plaza, and he wanted to keep it that way. Too much has gone wrong in there. Just when it seemed the nightmaren had reached a dead end and was lost in all the fog he noticed a few small lights in the distance. Curious, NiGHTS flew over to them.

The lights were small dimly-lit lanterns that were resting on two large platforms. In the center of the platforms… was a bridge.

"No way," NiGHTS gasped to himself. Was there really a bridge that connected both the Dream Plaza and the Nightmare Plaza together? NiGHTS inched forward a bit before catching himself and flying back. Even though the Nightmare Plaza was most likely abandoned too, he didn't want to go there. Not one bit.

NiGHTS retreated back to the main hub in front of the castle. Owl was gone, most likely checking up on the Nightopians in Nightopia leaving NiGHTS to have some alone time.

_Ah…. peaceful, beautiful, alone tim-_

There was a rustling in the bushes, and NiGHTS jumped up into defensive mode. It could've been Owl returning from Nightopia, but he couldn't be too sure with all the recent nightmaren activity.

"Owl, is that you?" NiGHTS asked uncertainly, slowly approaching the bushes next to the castle. The plaza was too dark to make out any exact shapes, but one look at the ugliest highlighter yellow color in the leaves and NiGHTS knew _exactly_ who it was.

NiGHTS immediately jumped the bush and grabbed the intruder, pinning them down to the ground.

"Jolten! What do you think you're doing here? What, was last time not enough for you?"

"L-Look! I don't want any trouble! Nightmayr he's… he's god damn crazy! You gotta hide me, NiGHTS. I promise I won't pull anything, I swear! Get me out of that hellhole!" Jolten pleaded while struggling against NiGHTS' grip.

"Wait- what?" NiGHTS loosened his grip, and flew back to let Jolten sit up and pull themself together. "You're… rebelling?" he grinned.

"Look, traitor," Jolten snapped, "I'm not rebelling. Nightmayr is crazy. _Every_ goddamn nightmaren wants out of there, I'm _only _protecting myself. I don't give a _shit_ about what happens to anything _or _anybody else, got it?"

NiGHTS crossed his arms, "well I guess you aren't acting very threatening right now but, nothing is different there," Jolten grumbled a bit, "anyway, what makes you think I'm going to trust you at all? You're worse than Reala is."

"Don't ever compare me to anyone again!" Jolten yelled.

"You mean like how you compared yourself to me all those years ago? That's a little hypocritical, isn't it?"

"Things change, I'm my own nightmaren now. I figured that out a long time ago."

"Well, good for you," NiGHTS responded in a sarcastic tone, "now leave."

"Wait wait wait! Please just let me stay here. I won't even bother you or the bird or anyone just let me hide here!"

"How bad is it over there that you need the hide? I don't trust you, Jolten. You tried to hurt my friend and I'll never forgive you. Besides, if it's that orb you want it's long gone." NiGHTS sighed.

"Don't you get it, idiot? That orb is the reason this is all happening!" Jolten shrieked, clinging onto NiGHTS' leg. "Wizeman sent me to get that orb to prevent exactly this from happening, and now it's happening and we're all doomed!"

NiGHTS tried shaking the graveling nightmaren off his leg but had no success. He finally gave up and just let them hang there. "What exactly is 'this' that's happening? Not like I'm believing anything you say."

"Nightmayr! I don't know how many times I have to say it! I've seen Reala take shit from Wizeman lots of times, but nothing like this! We have to stop him, NiGHTS!-" Jolten froze, and stared right at NiGHTS' frowning face.

"'We?'"

"I mean- you! You and that girl! Yeah, you two need to stop him! I don't know what he's planning but it's not good."

"You mean you don't even know what he's planning? That's a little suspicious.."

"I was never close enough to him to have him tell me! I don't even think Reala knows! This guy is super creepy, nobody knows what he's thinking ever! Please, just let me stay here?" Jolten got on their knees and started begging. This was really pathetic, NiGHTS thought.

NiGHTS let out an annoyed sigh, "fine. But don't bother any of us. If I see you do one thing out of line you're out. Kapeesh?" Jolten nodded. "Alright, I need to go find Owl. You're safe here, Jolten. For now." He glared before flying off.

* * *

"So what's the deal, Juliet? You look a bit stressed." Helen sat down at their booth at the cafe and placed her hand on Juliet's.

"I did some research…"

"And…?"

Juliet looked around the cafe before leaning into the two to tell them what she found. She explained how she did research on the missing kids and had managed to link them to the kids from the Dark Realm. She also told them about Marcus confronting her in her Nightopia and everything after that to catch them up.

Helen sat in silence and Will stared wide eyed at Juliet as she talked. This was getting a lot more serious than they thought, and it was scary.

"So these missing kids are all in the Dark Realm? But… that doesn't make sense. You can only visit the dream world when you're asleep. So shouldn't these kids just be...asleep? Or in a coma, at least? Disappearing altogether is a bit odd…" Helen pondered, trying to put everything together and process all the information Juliet had just thrown at them.

"Maybe this new guy can hop from the two worlds? I mean, Juliet did mention that a nightmaren attacked her at school. Maybe this is the same deal?" Will added but sounded a bit unsure.

"Yes, but remember that entering the waking world was something Wizeman was trying to do. If he was unsuccessful at it after trying for centuries, how would another being just waltz in and be able to do it so easily? It simply doesn't make any sense."

"Well… we don't really know anything about Nightmayr. For all we know, he could have been trying for centuries as well. I don't know… I don't know the details, all I know is that Marcus was on that list." Juliet finally jumped in, trying to conclude that they really didn't know anything.

Helen sat up from the table, "thank you for informing us, Juliet. I feel bad that we're both unable to help you in Nightopia… but I'd still like to help in any way I can. NiGHTS was our friend, nothing has changed."

"Same here," Will agreed and stood up too, "I gotta run, I have practice in an hour."

"Practice? I thought schools were closed today." Juliet wondered.

Will turned red, "Ah, right. I don't play on the school's team anymore. I'm on the official youth Bellbridge team, it's basically just a really hyped up kids team but we're all training to actually become professionals. I don't know how serious they actually are about that, though."

"Oh yeah, I know about that. It's a huge deal here I know, I didn't know you were on it."

"Yup, and you're looking at the star player." Will stood proudly. Helen punched him in the shoulder.

"Stop showing off and go already," she joked. After Will left, Helen turned to Juliet and smiled, picking her purse up, "Why don't we have a girls afternoon? I'm not doing anything and wanted to walk around town a bit anyway."

"Oh- uh, sure! I'd love to." Juliet beamed. It felt nice having friends who wanted to actually do stuff with her. Even though she knew it was impossible, she wished NiGHTS could join them on a walk through town sometime…

* * *

Juliet entered the Dream Plaza that night, but was unable to locate NiGHTS. She figured he was off doing whatever dream creatures do, but it felt like he was always doing that. Even Owl was nowhere to be found. Maybe they were waiting for her in her new Nightopia, she thought. There was a lot more she wanted to discover with NiGHTS, it looked like a fun Nightopia to go adventure in. She sure did love adventures. Juliet had practically lived outside when she was younger. She was always climbing trees, digging up the yard, going on hikes, and anything that you could do outside she did. She even had a journal filled with leaves she's pressed in it. She used to bring it with her everywhere just in case she saw a tree she's never seen before.

Juliet sighed, thinking about all this made her sad. She had no time anymore to go outside and explore, and she hasn't added to her journal in years. I guess that's what growing up means, though.

The dreamer sat in silence in her own thoughts for quite a while until her thoughts her disturbed by a quiet grumbling noise nearby. Juliet stood up cautiously and walked over the source of the muttering, "Excuse me?"

There was a yelp, and a bright yellow figure lept out of the bushes, "Hey- don't scare me like that!" They shouted.

"Ehh! Sorry! _You_ startled _me_! Anyway uh, who are you? You look like NiGHTS, so I guess you're also a nightmaren but… you don't seem all that threatening."

"Well, no need to be so _blunt,_" Jolten crossed their arms and pouted. "Anyway, the name's Jolten. No need to introduce yourself, I already know all about you."

Juliet shifted uncomfortable, "That's a little…. Creepy. But it's nice to meet you, Jolten. May I ask what exactly you're doing here?"

"The purple one let me hide here until you all do your thing and save the night dimension. No rush, though."

"Hide? What are you hiding from…?"

Jolten flew into Juliet's face, "Nightmayr! That guy is crazy! Trust me, not someone you wanna mess with. But… I guess that's what you're going to have to do anyway, right? Good luck!"

Jolten is….weird, Juliet thought to herself. But at least they're not trying to hurt me.

"Jolten! What did I say!" NiGHTS flew down in between the two and glared at Jolten.

"Hey- hey! Calm down! I didn't touch her or anything. Can't I introduce myself? Besides, _she _approached _me_!" Jolten yelped defensively.

NiGHTS turned around and gave Juliet a questioning look, "You did?"

"I heard noises so I went to investigate. Turns out it was Jolten mumbling about… whatever it was they were mumbling about."

NiGHTS sighed and turned back to face Jolten, "Alright, you're off the hook this time. Come on, Juliet. Let's go to Nightopia!"

Juliet smiled, "Alright! See you later, Jolten!" she waved before dashing after NiGHTS to the entrance to her Nightopia.

"We need to find your ideya of intelligence, next. So keep your eye out while we're exploring."

"Got it!" Juliet smiled, happy to hear NiGHTS say they were going to explore. She pulled open the doors to Venturing Woods and went inside with NiGHTS. The Nightopia looked the same as before. Nightopians were happily flying around the tree tops looking for treasure, and Juliet was hoping they were going to join them today.

Realizing she hadn't told NiGHT about what she found out, Juliet took the opportunity while the two were alone together to tell NiGHTS about the kids from the Dark Realm.

"I see…" NiGHTS looked a bit puzzled after Juliet had explained her findings, "I wonder how those kids are entering the waking world to the dream world, it's actually impossible I would think…"

"That's what I was thinking too… it doesn't make any sense does it? It's what I found though, there's no denying that."

"No there isn't any denying that. When you wake up do some more research on that, I'm interested to know how many more we have to worry about. I thought the nightmarens were going to be an obstacle, but I never would've thought we'd be fighting visitors."

Juliet could tell NiGHTS was getting concerned, and wanted to make sure tonight would be a fun time for both of them. She tugged on NiGHTS sleeve to get his attention while he was floating there pondering and jumped up.

"Come on, let's not worry about that right now! I want to explore this Nightopia, we didn't get a chance to last time."

NiGHTS smiled at the excited dreamer. He could notice Juliet was getting a lot more comfortable here and with herself. Maybe NiGHTS was doing something right for once…

"Okay!" He grinned, "Let's go see what those nightopians are up to again. Wonder if they've found anything good tonight." NiGHTS extended his hand to Juliet for them to dualize and the gesture was accepted.

"Hey, NiGHTS?" Juliet began as they were dualized, "Could we go look for treasure together, too? I've always loved going treasure hunting as a kid, I'd like to do it one last time."

"Of course! Come on, let's go do that right now! Any place in particular you want to check out?"

"Hmm.." Juliet scanned the Nightopia, seeing if any trails caught her eye. "Let's fly around the tree tops a bit, I liked climbing trees too so, maybe we'll find a lot more up there!"

NiGHTS nodded and the two took off and flew as high as they could go. Juliet was still a bit afraid of heights, but the tree branches all around have her a sense of security.

They flew for a very long time and watched as Nightopians flew inside the hollow tree trunks and returned with various treasures. It felt almost as if there was competition between them, and she and NiGHTS had now joined the race.

"Anything catch your eye yet, Juliet?" NiGHTS turned his head to ask the dreamer flying with him.

"No yet, oh- wait!" The suns rays hit them right in the eyes signaling a reflection. Juliet steered them down to the branch below and poked her head in the hollowed tree trunk. There was a small nest sitting inside, and in it was a small lilac colored orb.

NiGHTS heart started racing but he managed to remain calm as Juliet picked the orb up in her hands. "What is it?" she asked, holding it up and examining it.

"Don't know," NiGHTS responded. He technically wasn't lying. "Why don't you hold onto it, though. Think of it as a souvenir!"

Juliet beamed, "Yeah! I'll put it in my bag and- wait… will it still be in my bag when I go back to sleep next time?"

"It should. Your dream self is always the same, just like your waking self!"

Juliet and NiGHTS undualized and Juliet gently placed the orb inside of her bag. It looked almost cute resting inside like that, and it couldn't help but make Juliet feel all happy.

"This was a fun night, NiGHTS. I think I should be waking up, though."

"Alright, see you tomorrow night for more Nightopia exploring, then!" NiGHTS waved goodbye to the dreamer as she began to woke up. He almost regretted letting her take that orb, but he also didn't trust himself enough to keep it after last time. He wasn't going to make the same mistake again, he promised himself that.


	16. Chapter 16

_Helen sat down at the dinner table, still engaged in reading her old stories. Her mother had called her name several times to get her daughter's attention, but Helen was too zoned into the diary hear._

"_Helen!" Her mom finally slammed her hands down on the table. Helen jumped in her seat and finally looked up at her frowning mom. "I've called your name at least 10 times, what with you tonight?" She noticed the dream diary in Helen's hands and began chuckling, "Oh, that's what it is. Never thought I'd see that thing again. Did you find it while you were cleaning?"_

_Helen nodded, "Yeah, I've been reading it all afternoon since I finished cleaning. Do you remember anything about these stories?"_

"_I remember you used to talk forever about them. You went into...major details about these stories. I wasn't that concerned, since every kid needs imaginary friends every now and then...although you were a little past that age. What about you?"_

"_Dunno. It's all kind of weird. I don't really remember thinking of this at all… it just kind of happened…"_

"_Most teenagers don't remember how their childhood imaginary friends came into existence," Helen's mom laughed, "which is why it can be so fun to talk about. You used to come running downstairs every morning going on about what you and that Night friend did last night."_

_Helen laughed, "I don't remember that at all. Were you even a little bit freaked out?" _

_Her mom pulled out a seat at the table and sat down next to her daughter, "I mean, a little bit. I wondered if there was anything going on in your life to have you create such fantasies. That was just the inner mother in me I guess. It was nice to see you get so excited over something, though. You used to draw you and Night together all the time, I used to put them on the fridge. You got embarrassed when I did that. Do you really not remember this? It was only a few years ago."_

_"I do remember having these fantasies… but I don't remember the fantasies themselves." Helen shook her head, "It's weird… anyway I'm getting hungry."_

_"You can go ahead and fix your plate," her mom said, standing up, "You may not be old enough to let go of imaginary friends but you're old enough to get your own food," she joked. _

_Helen laughed back and followed her mom into the kitchen. It was only a few years ago… she thought to herself. It feels like forever ago. Why did I suddenly stop making up these stories if they were making me so happy? Her head starting hurting, maybe she should have a light dinner tonight._

_The next day Helen decided to spend in town. She wanted to be on her own for a bit. Her old diary made her feel weird in a way she couldn't describe, or maybe her head was just a mess from playing too much Bejeweled._

_Helen sat down at a bench on the sidewalk and took out her phone. For a moment she considered texting Mary to meet her somewhere, but she decided against it. This was her day to spend by herself, no one was going to ruin that._

_She sat back in the bench and stared up at the sky watching a few pigeons fly over head. What she would give to be able to fly like that too._

_After a while of sitting and enjoying the cool Bellbridge air Helen sat up to walk around a bit. She wasn't particularly planning on buying anything today, but it didn't hurt to look around a few places._

_The only thing she really wanted to buy was food, or even just a coffee. God, she could go for a coffee._

_The cafe wasn't too far, Helen figured she'd make a quick stop. On the way, she passed by the music store. She could hear the calming noise of music lessons from inside. Helen always wanted to take lessons there like her friends, but her mom insisted on teaching her herself. Some teacher she was alright._

_Finally Helen managed to get to the cafe after being constantly distracted by everything passing by. The line for take out was thankfully very short, and she was in and out in no time._

_Helen's phone buzzed as she was walking out and took it out to see who it was as she was walking. It was Mary, of course, but that's all Helen got to see before she bumped into someone passing by._

_Her coffee spilled everywhere and all over the boy walking by, and she dropped her phone on the sidewalk shattering the screen. The three boys passing by were wearing red football jerseys and looked at her, two were glaring._

_"Watch where you're going, blondie," one of the other boys scoffed._

_"Hey- it's fine!" The boy Helen bumped into hesitated, "neither of us were really paying attention."_

_"Dude, don't say that. The bitch was clearly on her phone. Clearly whatever trends on twitter are more important than safety of others." The third chanted in._

_"No one even got hurt but… yeah." The one turned back to Helen, "You really should've been looking where you were going."_

_"Sorry…" Helen muttered, bending over to pick up her shattered phone. She frowned at the phone, at the boys, and her now empty coffee cup that she didn't even get to drink yet._

_"You should be," the first one snapped again. "Obviously all you seem to care about is your phone and coffee."_

_"Come on, Jake. The poor little rich girl can't help it. I bet she's been going through coffee withdrawal since 8am, you know how they get. Don't get too close she might bite." The boys laughed, even the one originally standing up for Helen was laughing now too._

_"Oh my **god**," he started talking in a girly mocking voice, "That's the fifth phone this **week**! How am I going to tell my mom we need to buy** another** £500 phone? I'm so stressed out need another iced caramel macchiato!"_

_Helen rolled her eyes. They were just getting annoying now._

_"We're just having a little fun," Jake grinned and lightly punched her shoulder, pulling his own phone out secretly "it's not every day we see a girl as indecent as you. Your phone shattering was just consequence for being a basic bitch."_

_"Oh grow up," Helen grunted, "my phone buzzed and I just checked to see who it was quickly. It's your fault for acting like you own the sidewalk."_

_"But you seriously couldn't wait three seconds to look? I'm going to smell like coffee all day because you can't go three seconds without looking at your phone?"_

_"I'll have you know I **don't** look at my phone every three seconds. In fact I haven't used it at all today, it was a one time check. Don't act like you know everything just because you're a boy and I'm a girl," now Helen's frustration was really starting to show. "We could have apologized and you could've crawled away with your little team here and cleaned up by now. Instead you decide to stand here and give me a hard time because what… I'm a girl? You three have absolutely no respect, it's people like you who make me glad I'm homeschooled!" She let out a deep breathe._

_"Oh so you **are** homeschooled? I was going to ask but I didn't want to stereotype," Jake responded sarcastically. "Whatever. We're done anyway, there's a lot more important things to do."_

_Helen sighed frustratingly and took a couple steps away from the trio._

_"She's probably going to go whine to her mom and dad about this injustice," one sneered under their breathe._

_When she heard that, it was it. The one word she hated hearing. Her dad. Helen whipped back around and marched back over to the boys, "Who do you even think you are? A bunch of all-star football boys who think they're just… above everyone else? Well newsflash, you're not. We're all living in the same washed up town with the same washed up people. I don't know how you were raised, and you sure as **hell** don't know how I was, but you're telling me I have no decency? I apologized, I acknowledged my mistake and was ready to move on. You three kept pushing it and pushing it, seriously? I doubt you even have a damn reason to do so. So shove off and get a life!"_

_"Wow, real strong words…" Jake's sarcastic tone returned, "I'm really going to take what you said to heart."_

_Helen lost it. She smacked Jake right across the face, her ring leaving a mark, and stormed off again before they could react back. God she hated boys. Especially the Bellbridge football team ones. They were all so egotistical._

_"Argh!" Jake shouted, holding his face and crouching over, "You're gonna fuckin' regret that bitch! God… dammit! Did that just happen?"_

_The two other boys looked at each other and laughed at their friend._

_Jake pressed his finger against his face and noticed a small bit a blood from the ring, "I thought girls in America were tough but god damn. Whatever, bitch is gonna regret that." He laughed to himself and shoved his phone back in his pocket._

_One of the boys noticed Jake putting his phone back, and responded quietly, "Let it go, dude. You took that a little too far don't you think?"_

_"Shut up 'Taylor don't act like the good guy here, you were enjoying it don't lie." Jake rolled his eyes. "No one messes with me. Or- you guys either I guess. Sincerely, a hit to you guys is a hit to **me**. I'm **just** looking out for my guys, right?"_

_The other two exchanged uncertain glances again before responding, "Right."_

* * *

It was Thursday morning, Maria knew that. Her alarm was buzzing her to get up but she didn't want to. She hasn't had a decent sleep in ages. Maria tiredly lifted up her hand to slam her alarm off. It's not like she had to get up for school anything, she already graduated high school and was home for the time being. But, she got up anyway. Mostly out of habit, and also to see if Will needed a ride to school.

Maria got out of bed and threw on a random T-shirt that was lying on her floor for who knows how long. She brushed her hair, made herself look at least somewhat presentable, and went downstairs to make some breakfast.

Will was already downstairs eating, but she could tell he was still half asleep. She walked

over to him and lightly hit him on the shoulder to wake him up. He jumped in his seat in response and glared at Maria. "Ok, ok. I'm awake now."

Maria laughed, "Sorry, falling asleep in your breakfast has been a habit lately." She looked down at the table and noticed just a small cup of yogurt, "that's all you're having for breakfast?"

Will shrugged, obviously annoyed by his sister's remark. "I'm not that hungry, I didn't really sleep well last night," he muttered.

"Wouldn't that make you _more_ hungry?" She joked, "anyway, it looks like it's going to rain this morning. Need me to drive you to school?"

"Sure," Will muttered again.

Maria left and walked into the kitchen to make breakfast for herself. She turned the stove

on and took a couple of eggs out of the fridge. Maria wasn't really a fan of breakfast foods, but she knew she'd regret not eating.

She finished making her eggs and sat down at the table. Will had already gone upstairs to change for school, so she was sitting alone.

There was a knock at the door, and Maria wondered who would be here this early in the morning. She got up to answer it, but was cautious in doing so. She slowly opened the door, and on her front porch were three kids, all staring maliciously at her.

"Trick or treat!" They all grinned.

Maria laughed, "It's a little early for trick or treating isn't it? Are you guys friends of Wills or something?"

The three looked at each other and smiled, and looked right back at Maria who now had a confused and nervous expression.

* * *

Will had already put his uniform on and was on his way out of his room to leave when he heard a scream from downstairs.

"Maria?" he called after pausing for a moment. There was no response. "Maria?!" he called louder. Still no response. Will slowly walked downstairs and peered around the corner into the kitchen. The front door creaked causing Will to jump a bit, but it drew his attention to it being wide open. He stepped out on the front porch and looked around the yard, but still didn't see Maria anywhere. A few drops of rain hit his head and he sighed, guess he was walking to school today.

He went back inside to grab his bag, thinking if he left now maybe he could beat a possible downpour. There was still no sign of Maria, but he tried to stay calm. Even if he was freaking out on the inside.

* * *

Will knew he left early for school, but there really wasn't anything else he could do. He was prepared to have to wait for Juliet to arrive figuring she would come when all the other kids did. To his surprise, Juliet was already about to walk through the front door of the school. Will ran, shouting her name before she could step through the entrance.

"What? What is it?" Juliet asked turning around, "can it wait until study hall? I have to go change into my uniform and I really don't like being thrown off my sche-"

"Maria's missing."

Juliet paused and stared at Will for a moment before replying again with, "What?"

"My sister. Maria. I… I don't know what happened one minute she was downstairs then she wasn't and the door was open and there was a scream-"

"Ok hold on, hold on. Breathe in and start from the beginning slowly before you hurt yourself," she laughed slightly.

"Maria came downstairs and everything was normal, right? So, I left to go upstairs and all the sudden I hear a scream."

"Was it Maria?"

Will shrugged, "Sounded like her, I don't know. She never screams but who else could it have been. Anyway, I went downstairs and she was gone. The door was open but she wasn't outside either." He started rocking, "and on the way to school I started thinking about what you told us about the kids going missing and… I'm worried now."

"Two people from Bellbridge missing now? Maybe they're targeting us…" Juliet said quietly.

"Don't say that!" Will snapped, "Maria may be a pain in the ass but she's got nothing to do with this! She would have no reason to willingly join these guys, or whatever!"

"I don't want to say it but… maybe... they aren't getting her to join them."

"What?" Will calmed down a bit.

"You said she screamed… maybe they took her by force. I think… I think Nightmayr is trying to lure me to him."

"So this is suddenly about _you_?" He snapped again. "My sister is missing and you're making this about _you_?" Will noticed Juliet's anxious expression and took a deep breathe, "Sorry, I didn't mean it to… I didn't mean that. I guess I just feel bad that… there's nothing I can do to help, y'know? I can't do anything to save Maria if what you said is true and the thought of someone else getting hurt because of _my _problem doesn't sit right with me…"

"Oh… I understand. It's okay, really! NiGHTS and I will find Maria if she really is with those guys. It'll be in and out, okay?"

Will looked down, a bit embarrassed after his outburst still, "Yeah, ok. Sorry… again. Anyway you can go change now. I might not be in study hall today."

Juliet smiled and nodded in return and ran inside the school so she could change before the bell rang. The hallways were still fairly empty, but she knew students have already begun to swarm the building. Alaia was standing by her locker, she had clearly been waiting for a long time.

"Oh… hey. You're here early…" Juliet quietly noted.

"Yeah I've been waiting for you… you said you usually got here around 8," Alaia responded nervously, "you're not avoiding me are you? I know things got a bit awkward but…"

"No!" She quickly jumped in, "Something just came up and my schedule got thrown off a bit. So uh… what did you want to talk about?"

"Well I stopped by the cafe yesterday to get the ok on… what was her name? The waitress there. Anyway, she said the manager is letting her sing there again tomorrow night. I can't make it but… I'd figure I'd let you know."

Juliet closed her locker and began walking down the hall with Alaia to the bathroom. She was a bit sad Alaia wouldn't be able to go, but excited nonetheless. "Thanks for letting me know. I promised her I'd go see since it is technically my fault… I got a little carried away with helping there didn't I?"

Alaia giggled, "Yeah, you've become quite the preacher lately. It's not really like you to be this positive and open but… it's not a bad change."

_Not a bad change… _Juliet thought. Yeah… maybe change isn't really so bad after all.

The start day went by terribly slow. Most teachers were easy on the work, though. Since the party and the Alice disappearing the entire town has been on edge. A lot of the classes were spent goofing around or talking about what everyone did on their day off yesterday. Obviously Juliet couldn't talk about _her_ day off, but she knew what she did was far more important than any parties kids went to.

Will didn't show up to study hall like he said, and Juliet was getting a little worried. He really freaked out this morning. Of course, she didn't blame him but she still felt bad. Hopefully she and NiGHTS could figure something out before things got even worse. Not having any work to do, Juliet began to zone out.

She imagined herself in Venturing Woods exploring like she did last night. There weren't many Nightopians with her, but it was peaceful imagining herself back there. Juliet followed one of the paths through the woods until she reached a dead end.

A dead end? That doesn't make sense… these paths are supposed to go on forever… she thought. There was a rustling in the greenery in front of her, and out popped a large royal blue peacock. It shot its feathers up, and Juliet stared in fear of the piercing eyes that decorated them.

Before she had time to react the bell signaling the end of the period snapped Juliet out of her daydreaming. It felt so real, she almost forgot she wasn't even actually sleeping in the first place. The classroom emptied out except for Juliet, who sat there in confusion as her mind slowly adapted back to reality.

The rest of the day was spent thinking of how she was going to approach NiGHTS about what happened. The last time she brought up Will and Helen NiGHTS freaked out. Maybe she shouldn't mention their names… but how would she explain what happened? Juliet couldn't lie to someone like NiGHTS.

The end of the day came quicker than expected, and Juliet still didn't have a plan. She walked up to her locked to grab her street clothes, but instead of changing she stuffed them into her backpack. Maybe she'd start changing into her uniform at home from now on.


	17. Chapter 17

**god sorry i havent updated like. all summer. i have 0 motivation during summer but since school started ill hopefully get back into the swing of things**

**i was going to make this chapter longer, and actually get to nightmayrs castle in this chapter but i felt bad for not posting ANYTHING so ghhfhg oops.**

**updates have also been slow because im not seeing a whole lot of interest so,, if that continued i might just go back to making this a private fic for my friend like before :S**

* * *

_The front door slammed shut, and Helen instinctively walked over and plopped her tired body on the sofa. She could smell her mom already beginning to cook dinner. Recently, Helen's been wondering why she even bothers cooking dinner every night. It's just the two of them, why not just get take out? _

_Helen struggled to pick herself up from the sofa, all that walking around town left her exhausted. Not to mention she decided to walk home all the way from the city to get some time alone. She was ready to sleep for a month straight. She stood up finally and walked over to the kitchen to see her mom._

_Her mom had_ _**clearly**_ _been cleaning all day. The entire kitchen was spotless, the floor was almost shimmering. Helen was practically tip toeing across the floor so she wouldn't ruin it. _

"_Oh!" Her mom yelped seeing her daughter in the room, "how did you get home?!"_

_Helen shrugged, "I walked."_

"_You walked all the way from the city back to here? I've been waiting for you to call me so I could pick you up!"_

"_It was nice out," Helen shrugged again, "it wasn't __**really**_ _that long of a walk."_

"_Alright just… let me know next time okay? I was starting to get worried something happened!" _

"_You worry too much, I've been going out alone to the city ever since I was 12, Mom. Nothing bad happens in Bellbridge." Helen said confidently as she went to pour a glass of water for herself and took a seat at the counter. _

_The TV they had on the kitchen wall was on, Helen's mom liked to have it on in the background while she cooked. She always said it made her feel like "less alone" or something. Helen didn't really care._

_Like every parent though, she only __**ever**_ _kept the news on. Doesn't hearing the same stories over and over again get boring? _

_**~Coming up- we have some more information on the Bellbridge Youth's Professional Football Team.~**_

"_Great," Helen yawned, "more news I don't care about." She went to reach for the remote at the end of the counter, but she stopped when she saw a familiar face on the tv. _

_It was a picture of the stadium in the city the team uses, and it must have been an old photo since the season hadn't started yet. All the members of the team were sitting together, the coach or whatever behind them. Helen recognized the boy from town that she spilled her coffee on sitting right in the center with a big cocky grin on his face. She started squeezing the glass of water in hand, thankfully not strong enough to actually break it._

_Now she_ _**really**_ _didn't care about the news. _

"_What's wrong?" Her mom laughed, "You look tense." _

_Helen released her grip on the glass and heaved an annoyed sigh, "Nothing, sports are just stupid. Just like the people who play them." _

_Her mom continued chuckling and leaned on the counter closer to her daughter, "You're turning red. Come on, talk to me." _

_Helen grunted but now her mom knew something was up, there was no way she was getting out of this one. She didn't want to go into detail, knowing she definitely over reacted in the situation. She wants to beat herself up more than she does those boys._

"_I just ran into some boys in town and they were giving me a hard time. They were wearing different color jerseys than the youth professionals team but… guess one of them used to be in it." Helen nodded towards the tv awkwardly. _

"_Alright," her mom laughed again, "which one is he so I can go hunt him down and yell at him for you?" she joked. Helen knew she wasn't being serious but… she kind of wish she was. _

"_In the center," Helen rolled her eyes, "can I just go to my room now?" _

"_Oh, I know that boy!" Her mom, once again, started laughing. _

_Helen groaned._

"_I never followed the program or the games but it's such a big deal here I'd always see stuff on that news. He was the best player on the team I thought? What was his name?" Her mom began scratching her chin, clearly faking she was thinking and just trying to bother her daughter more._

"_Mom I don't care!" Helen whined, throwing her head back. Her mom was always so extra. _

"_You're turning pretty red for something you don't care about… now...Will was it? Something like that," she winked._

_Helen groaned loudly and left the kitchen. For someone in her 40's her mom still acted like she was a teenager. Guess that's what happens when it's just you and your adolescent daughter for 10 years. This isn't what she wanted to do when she got home at all. Today has just been a complete mess. _

_She plopped on her bed and checked her phone to see if she got any texts from Mary. Dinner would probably be ready soon, but honestly Helen would rather starve than deal with her mom teasing her. She always gets mad at her for not spending time together but she's the reason Helen leaves so much. _

'No…' _Helen thought to herself, '_you're just selfish aren't you.' _she sighed. '_Mum works hard to help me… and still all I do is turn my back on her and run away….why? You'd think I'd learn by now..'

_Helen tossed over on her side, facing her old dream diary. She begrudgingly picked it up and opened to a page. She knew the name Will sounded familiar… 'god how embarrassing' she laughed to herself. That's probably the only reason her mom even brought it up. _

_She smiled to herself as she flipped through the pages, it was almost revolting to her that that asshole shared the name with someone so important to her as a kid. Almost ironic, she laughed. _

_Helen yawned, and tossed the diary on the floor, too lazy to get up and put it away somewhere. She turned back over on her other side again and closed her eyes. _Tomorrow will be another day… _she thought._ And so will be the next day… and the next day… and the next day…

* * *

"Who's a good nightmaren? Who's a good nightmaren?" Nightmayr was petting the recently defeated Crocile, who was rolled over on his back. The Dark Realm leader was viciously rubbing the 2nd levels tummy. Crocile had his tongue loped to the side and was making a strange gurgling sound- probably the equivalent to purring.

"Did those mean Nightopia-lovers hurt you? Did they hurt you?" Nightmayr repeated his puppy-like tone.

Crocile groaned a yes, but continued to gurgle has Nightmayr rubbed his tummy.

"They'll pay for that. Yes they are oh yes they are!" He began making kissy faces at the crocodile.

"Uh… Master…" Reala's voice echoed from behind the two.

Nightmayr frantically stood up and recollected himself, he turned to face the general and scowled at him, "Have you considered knocking, Reala?"

Reala hesitantly bowed, "Forgive me, but it was you who asked to see me, sir."

Nightmayr crossed his arms, "Yes, that's right. After the recent defeat of Crocile, the little brat recovered her Ideya of Purity. A weak Ideya, but an Ideya nonetheless. We cannot allow this to happen again."

"Of course, sir. What would you like me to do."

"Another Nightopia has opened up, I want you and Rachael to go investigate it. I have senses something.. Important there. If you two find it I wish for it to be returned to me."

"Y-yes of course. But what are we looking for?"

"An orb. Lilac in color, I'm sure you'll… sense its energy once you arrive."

Reala bowed his head, "We will find the orb and bring it to you."

"I know you will, if you don't there will be punishment." Reala flinched, "One more thing. It appears a little nightmaren decided to run away from me. If you see them… bring them back to me alive, will you?" Nightmayr grinned.

Reala bowed once again, "I will go find Rachael, we will leave shortly and return once the mission is complete."

"Excellent… now," Nightmayr coughed, "I have to go back to… healing Crocile."

Reala flew around the courtyard of the castle. Rachael was a failed 1st level, and did not have a lair of its own to reside in. Instead, it usually crept around Nightmayr's castle. It was revived by Nightmayr after all, he is its Wizeman, Reala thought.

"Rachael," Reala flew down to greet the nightmaren, "Nightmayr has ordered us to scope out the visitors new Nightopia."

"Eugh, do I really have to go? I can't stand those places." It whined, placing a hand on its cheek.

"Nightmayr has ordered us, so yes. Who knows- if we're lucky we may even run into the brat. With two of us it'll be a lot easier to get rid of her." Reala crossed his arms. He was trying to think of a way to convince Rachael to go.

Rachael smiled, "Guess you're right. Right behind 'ya."

Reala nodded and created a paralooped portal to Nightopia. He cautiously flew inside it followed by Rachael.

"I swear if I see that girl I'll rip her head right off her body for making a fool out of me before!" Rachael growled.

"Nightmayr needs her alive still, without her we would be unable to infiltrate the Waking World," Reala smiled.

Rachael grunted and continued to follow Reala though Venturing Woods.

"There's too many trees," Rachael complained.

"What's wrong with that?"

"I hate trees…"

Reala sighed, "Of course you do."

A bunch of nightopians that had been treasuring hunting sensed the nightmaren, and instinctively fled the area. Reala inspected the treasure-filled hollow trees for the orb, but saw no sign of it. The nightmaren general became anxious- something nightmarens never do. He frantically began checking every crack and nook but the orb was nowhere to be found. He couldn't even sense it like Nightmayr said he could.

Rachael had been observing the Nightopia itself while Reala desperately tried to find what Nightmayr wanted. "Dammit," he cursed under his breathe, "NiGHTS and the visitor must have already found it…"

"If they have something we want… we should take it from them!" Rachael smiled.

"Alright, genius." Reala hissed, "Excuse me, NiGHTS. You and your friend have something Nightmayr wants- may we please have it?"

"Ok, that idea was stupid," Rachael replied to Reala's mocking tone, "but… it does give me an idea."

Reala raised his eye, "what is it?"

"If we went and ambushed NiGHTS now we would surely lose… however what if we let a 2nd level tire them out first."

"But that would risk having the visitor recover another one of her Ideya… Nightmayr refuses to let that happen again."

"That is true, but if Nightmayr really wanted this thing then he'd be willing to take risks. He's already taken quite a few with those dreamers of his… so what's one more? Besides, I already have the perfect Nightmaren for the job."

"Hey, Juliet!" NiGHTS flew down to greet his new friend excitedly, "you're here early tonight! That gives us more time to explore Nightopia together!"

NiGHTS began flying in a figure-8 motion around Juliet- careful not to accidentally paraloop the girl. Juliet stayed silent, not exactly sure how to explain the situation to NiGHTS. She shifted her weight a bit before finally cutting off the nightmarens flying.

"A-actually, NiGHTS… something's come up…"

NiGHTS lowered himself, and hovered at the dreamers height, cocking his head to the side, "Huh? What is it, did you find out some more information?"

"Well…" Juliet crossed her arms, "not exactly… Nightmayr has been targeting my town pretty hard this week. A girl from my school went missing, and now a family member of… uh… one of my friends is gone…"

The floating nightmaren put his hands on his hips and glanced away from the visitor for a moment. It was clearly no coincidence, but something still seemed off, and it wasn't just the confusion of how Nightmayr was doing it. There's no doubt at this point that Nightmarens have clearly found a way to infiltrate the Waking World.

"Alright," he sighed, "give me the details. Who are we looking for, exactly?"

"Uh… well… I don't actually know her. I don't know what she looks like or anything…" Juliet got quiet. She didn't think she'd really get this far with NiGHTS.

"Well that's helpful. You don't know anything?"

"I mean… I know it was this morning. Will came to school all freaked out and- I mean…"

"D-did you say Will?" NiGHTS' eyes widened.

"Uh… yeah. I thought you didn't know him? At least that's what you said…" She could feel herself shrinking down in regret.

"Oh..! I don't." NiGHTS crossed his arms and glanced away once again, "never met them once. Why are you still asking me about them?"

"I...I'm not. NiGHTS, and I never mentioned a 'them'... you sure you're okay? Did… something happen?"

NiGHTS looked back at Juliet regretfully, he could see the genuine concern in her eyes. He almost got lost in them, the bright pink colored iris and the worry they held brought back past memories he cherished deeply. NiGHTS knew he could trust her, he had to.

"Helen and Will…" NiGHTS heaved a sigh, and begrudgingly began explaining, "used to visit Nightopia all the time. They helped me save it, actually… they were my closest friends at the time, and I didn't want to mess up again with them like I did with my last friends…" He crossed his legs in the air and leaned over, "one night they broke something that was important to me… I considered it a physical promise… a memory of one of my friends from the past. I just… snapped."

"NiGHTS… we all make mistakes, it's part of learning, right? If you keep running from things… they'll never get better…" Juliet frowned.

"You don't get it!" NiGHTS shouted painfully, "I stole their Ideya! I became a nightmaren again… I hurt them! I promised myself I wouldn't hurt anymore people who were close to me… but that's all I've done since I was created!"

"But you never meant it! I can tell, NiGHTS! If you don't try to fix th-"

"Be quiet!" NiGHTS growled, trying to hold back tears, "I just hurt everyone… Reala, Claris, Elliot, Will, Helen… and I know you're next. You should just go, Juliet! Before something happens to you too!"

Juliet straightened her posture, and looked up at NiGHTS with a serious expression masked on her face, "I'm not leaving. NiGHTS, ever since I met you I've been so much happier! I feel… more confident now! Because of you I realized that change isn't necessarily a bad thing, and it happens all the time! We can't give up now, not when all those families missing their children in the Waking World need us. If you want to step down, I understand. I'll just do this myself."

The visitors words slammed into NiGHTS' mind like a brick. He had actually… helped her? Had he done the same with the other visitors? Is that why they all… cared so much about him? Maybe… maybe they would all forgive him. Juliet was right, people do change, and they couldn't just give up that easily.

"I'm sorry, Juliet." NiGHTS sighed, "I guess… all this dark power everywhere has been affecting me more than I thought."

Juliet's expression lit up, "So that means you'll help, and see your friends again?"

"Well… the thing is… it's been a long time and I don't really know how to fix things at this point," the nightmaren shut his eyes. "At least without… being a nightmaren."

"If it's you, NiGHTS, I don't think anyone would mind." She smiled.

NiGHTS grunted and spun around away from Juliet. He cupped his hands around his mouth and began shouting for Jolten.

"Hey, hey!" Jolten screamed, jumping out from some bushes nearby, "not so loud, okay! What in the world do you even want? Thought I wasn't allowed near ya guys?!"

"Well that rule certainly didn't stop you from eavesdropping over there, did it?" The purple nightmaren crossed his arms and stared at Jolten.

"I was nappin' pal. Not everyone cares about what boring conversations a traitor must have with a visitor."

"Jolten, if I recall… aren't you a traitor too, now?" Juliet frowned, not wanting a fight to start.

"Hey!" They snapped, "I ain't no traitor! I'd never betray Wizeman like this annoying scrap right here! Nightmayr's different, he's no Wizeman that's for sure."

"Oh, right. Sorry." Juliet backed away from Jolten, who had sparks flying from their clenched fists.

"Listen, Jolten. I need you to do a favor. You know Nightmare better than anyone right now, and I have something I need to do." NiGHTS began, trying to sound a calm as possible. He still didn't trust Jolten, and if the ugly yellow gremlin decided they were going to pull anything, NiGHTS would be there. "Sneak Juliet with you to wherever Nightmayr is residing. If you get caught, say you captured her so you won't get hurt… I know what they do to traitors.

"Juliet, don't worry if something happens. I'll be there as fast as I can. I promise." NiGHTS smiled at his friend and crouched down to eye level.

Juliet gave a joking skeptical look, "Pinky promise?"

The nightmaren blinked a few times before giggling, and holding his pinky out in return, "Pinky promise."


	18. Chapter 18

**have no fear, elliot does get his part- hopefully soon? my outlines a mess right now and i have 0 direction. i should get around to cleaning it up. hm.**

**god, again i didnt get to anything i actually wanted to in this chapter and its Shorter than it should be but its been a while since an update so *dabs* whatever**

**im a terrible writer**

* * *

_"__Juliet, please. We can't do this alone, I have friends who can help. You need to find them, I can sense one of their Ideya on you… I recognize it from the past. They may have forgotten me, it's been a long time… Please, Juliet…."_

_NiGHTS watched as his new friend slowly faded, and praying that she was able to receive his message in time._

_"__Hoo! Well I do hope she processed all that. Do you actually believe she will able to find the ones you speak of?" Owl cooed, sounding a bit sarcastic. _

_The nightmaren dropped his body into the field of flowers, looking down at the row of lilacs under him. Owl was right, NiGHTS had not seen his friends in a very long time, but he could feel it… the Ideya. It was one part of his nightmaren instincts he wasn't able to get rid of over the past few years. "No one else's Ideya was as strong as theirs. I know she can find a way to bring Elliot and Claris back here… they have to remember me… even if I don't want them to after that one night with Claris…"_

_"__Oh hoo! But that was in the past, child. You must look ahead, not behind. It'll get you nowhere in your journey if all you do is trail back every now and again." He flew down and perched himself in a bed of lilacs next to NiGHTS. "Many visitors have strong Ideya… but you're right. No one was quite like those two, except…"_

_There was silence for a moment, and NiGHTS heaved a long sigh out for a moment, "We should be leaving, soon. I… I don't like hanging around in a Nightopia for a long time after the visitors leave."_

_Owl nodded and departed the lilac infested plains with NiGHTS, returning back to the Dream Gate, neither knowing it would be the last time._

* * *

Jolten had led Juliet to the large cobblestone bridge located at the edge of the plaza. She was hesitant at first when the nightmaren had explained to them the bridge connected right into Nightmare, but was assured the location of the Nightmare Plaza was empty, and has been for a long time.

"It's where I hung around to get away from this mess, and how I managed to sneak over here," they explained, "but Nightmayr might have figured that out. We should still stay low and quiet in case any of his little pawns are around."

"Who exactly is this guy anyway?" Juliet finally let out the question she's been dying to ask since day 1. Not even NiGHTS knew, and he was a Nightmaren, too.

"I don't even know!" Jolten shouted angrily, "he just showed up one day once Wizeman was gone, claiming he was just as powerful or something. Obviously, we all just kinda laughed, like who was this guy? But we sure learned our lesson all right."

"So he just showed up and started bossing you all around? That's a little anticlimactic…"

"Just a little."

The rest of the way of pretty silent. The bridge was a lot longer than Juliet had anticipated it to be, in the end it made sense, though. After all, the dream world and the nightmare world shouldn't be neighbors anyway.

"Hey… wait." Juliet stopped walking, and glanced behind her in the direction of the Dream Plaza.

Jolten grumbled a 'what' in response. Being this close to Nightmare, they _really_ didn't want to stop.

"Why didn't we fly across?" She looked up at Jolten, who's eyes went wide as they crossed their arms.

"What do you mean? _You _can't fly, idiot."

"I mean… together? Like when NiGHTS and I… what did he call it? Dualize? Why didn't we just do that?"

Jolten let out an annoyed sigh. They knew the girl was just curious and concerned, she had a right to be. But he hated being compared to NiGHTS. "Because I don't cheat my powers? What do you want me to say?"

Juliet was taken back by the nightmarens snappy response, "I… I don't…"

"Look, kid," Jolten sighed, annoyed at both them and the visitor, "I can't dualize. I can't paraloop. I can't form bombs outta the sky. All I can do is make flashing lights and loud noises. Sorry I'm not as cool as NiGHTS or Reala or any other super cool powerful Nightmarens you may know." Their voice got quieter as they talked, even choking up a bit. They dropped their arms to their sides frustratingly, and continued to fly towards Nightmare, Juliet frantically jogging behind them.

_Now_ it was really silent. Juliet didn't understand why Jolten was so sensitive over that question. Well, she did. But to her it wasn't anything to get defensive about. She wished Jolten could understand but… it was best to just stay quiet until they arrived at the other side of the bridge.

The Nightmare Plaza was, just as Juliet has expected, dark. It looked like your stereotypical abandoned graveyard or something, like it came straight out of some gritty low budget Halloween movie. Tall dark green plants of unknown species broke through the cobblestone of the walkway, and tall black gothic fences surrounded the entire plaza like a prison. It was no wonder this place died long before the Dream Plaza, what visitor in their right mind would _choose_ to come here?

Jolten had already taken the lead by about 10 feet, clearly not wanting to stay and bird watch. Juliet quickly jogged up to the nightmaren, confused as to where they were going to go from here. Nothing really made sense in the Night Dimension. Worlds and Realms were all over the place, there was never a set entrance or exit to anywhere. It was just one big changing maze.

The two walked along paths and into portals for what seemed like centuries, and Juliet was beginning to think this was just a lost cause. _There's no shame in calling a quits… _she thought. _Except for losing your new friends sister to an apparent psychopath who wants you dead… _

"There," Jolten stopped very abruptly, pointing to a big cloud of fog in the distance.

Juliet squinted and stared at the fog for a while, but shook her head, "You mean Nightmayr just chills in a big pool of fog?"

"No you dunce," they spat, "his castle is in the fog. It's hidden, the guys a lunatic I know, but trust me. It's there. My work here is done," the yellow nightmaren turned around and began to fly away from the dreamer, who called their name in immediate response.

"What do you think you're doing? I can't just go _alone!_"

"Look kid, you're nice and all. But my promise was to take you here, not walk right into it with you. This is where I head back to my safe spot, and you be a clueless little visitor and walk right into what's obviously a trap. Frankly, I don't want to stick around here one bit."

"Well…" Juliet stuttered a bit, "Can you at least just… wait here with me? Until NiGHTS gets here?"

"No way, Jose! The longer I stick around the more of a chance that prick'll find me and drag me back into his hell. I do me, you do you."

Jolten managed to fly away a few more feet, until a second call of their name from Juliet made them cease once again.

"You know…" Juliet grinned, "If NiGHTS finds out you left me here alone… I doubt he'd let you even have one _foot _in the Dream Plaza. He'll kick you out before you can say Red Ideya."

"Eugh…" Jolten let out a defeated groan. They did a 180 back towards Juliet, and returned to their spot right next to her. "I don't want any small talk, though. Let's just sit here and wait for that purple lump to get here, if he even knows _how._"

"I'm sure he'll find a way, he's NiGHTS!" She smiled, but Jolten just looked away and remained silent.

Juliet sat down on the edge of the cliff before the pool of fog. She pulled her knees in to her chest and continued to stare down at the swirling clouds in the distance. You'd think she'd be used to all this by now, but it was still so surreal to her.

Her train of thought was interrupted by the sound of footsteps shuffling behind her. She turned around to see Helen running towards her eagerly.

Juliet stood up to run and meet her halfway, and the two hugged each other tightly. She glanced over Helen's shoulder a bit confused though.

"Where's NiGHTS and Will?" She stepped down from the embrace and asked Helen.

"They're…" she glanced behind her, "...somewhere. I ran ahead of them a while ago… against NiGHTS' suggestion." Helen laughed, blushing a little, "I guess I just got excited to be here, and to see you."

"Oh, that's nice… I guess I won't be lonely anymore while we wait for the others."

Jolten grunted, "You act as if I haven't been here the whole time."

"It's not like you were that great of company in the first place…" Juliet mumbled, surprised Jolten was still even here.

"Who's that?" Helen asked.

"Oh… that's Jolten," Juliet assumed she was referring to the nightmaren, "I… really don't know that much. I _think_ they're on our side?"

"That's reassuring." Helen giggled.

Jolten groaned again and began swerving around impatiently. Juliet could tell they felt heavily unsafe being here, and she didn't blame them for not wanting to be here. She didn't even want to be here.

She and Helen both peered back down at the abyss below them. Juliet wondered how big this place would even be, and how they would ever even _begin_ to look for Maria. Her tenseness must have been noticed by Helen, who gently placed her hand on Juliet's shoulder and assured her it would be okay.

"We're all in this together now, right?" She smiled.

"Hey! Juliet!" NiGHTS called cheerily from the distance.

"NiGHTS!" She turned around to greet her friend as he approached her. Will was right behind him, jogging to keep up.

"Looks like everyone's here," NiGHTS smiled. Juliet could sense the hint of nervousness behind it, though. NiGHTS had every right to feel uncomfortable right now, but she hoped he would eventually get over it and move on. The two made eye contact, and Juliet gave him a reassuring smile and was returned with a nod from the nightmaren.

"Well, this is where I take my leave," Jolten turned to fly away but NiGHTS had gripped their sleeve, pulling them back down.

"Jolten, would you mind just… waiting here? Incase anything happens?" NiGHTS said quietly to the other. He stated it as a question, but it was obvious Jolten would have no say in the matter. Jolten begrudgingly agreed to stay and wait, and Juliet wondered if they could trust them not to fly off while they were gone.

NiGHTS turned to face the three dreamers and held his hands out to them, "the only way we're getting through that is by flying. It's… been awhile since I've done this, I don't know how much power it's going to take but… I think there's enough Ideya with the three of you here to do it."

Helen and Will glanced over at each other and nodded, like they clearly understood what NiGHTS was referring to. Juliet on the other hand was absolutely clueless. She assumed they were dualizing due to having to fly but how do all three of them do that? The rest had already touched each others hands with one another, and waited for Juliet to do the same.

She held her breath and gently touched finger tips with NiGHTS and Helen. The familiar feeling of dualizing had struck her immediately as the bright light absorbed the foursome. When Juliet's vision fixated, two other NiGHTS were floating in front of her, also adjusting to the strange sensation.

"How's this for a surprise, Jule's?" All three NiGHTS asked at once, causing Juliet to flinch a bit.

"I didn't know you could dualize with more than one person! NiGHTS, that's amazing!" The visitor beamed.

"It's not something he can do often," Helen explained, "it takes a lot of strength to do it. There's only been one time we've had to do it."

"I usually only do it when it's extremely necessary," NiGHTS had added, "just now… it seems to be the easiest way to all get down there together without a pile of visitors grabbing on my back."

Juliet flew towards the abyss, and anxiously glanced down again. Now they were actually going to do it… go down there. It felt strange, and like this was it, but she knew this was only the beginning to whatever is going on in the Dream World.

"Jeez, how far down do you think it is?" Both other NiGHTS flew next to Juliet and peered down as well.

"Only one way to find out," Will grinned, and took off the ground. "Race you two to the bottom!"

Helen grunted in annoyance and raced down too right behind him. Both had already disappeared into the fog.

Juliet turned around to see Jolten one last time. They smiled in defeat and gave the girl a thumbs up. Smiling, she returned the good luck, and started to fly down into the unknown.


	19. Chapter 19

***shows up 5 months late with starbucks and a dead meme* this chapter is rushed and badly written and i promised twylight would make it in this chapter but i keep making things longer and longer and adding more and i want to die**

* * *

_If he ran he could make it._

_Elliot panted as he ran through the familiar streets of Twin Seeds, straining himself to keep running. His ankle was swelling, he had injured it during one of his games and had been out of commission for the past month. It was finally healing, but at the pace he was running at now he could be out for another few weeks again. Nothing would compare to the pain he'd feel if he couldn't make it on time._

_The Twin Seeds Train Station. It's easy to forget it exists, no one ever wants to leave Twin Seeds once they arrive. Well, almost everyone._

_It was 10 minutes till 1, Elliot could see the large station just around the corner. What if the train came early? What if she was already gone? He ran faster, feeling the burning in his ankle with every step._

_The crowd outside was overwhelming, but maybe it was just his mind spinning in circles. He pushed himself through, forcing himself inside the station._

_He could see her waiting. Her bright pink luggage was hard for your eyes to miss._

_"Claris!" Elliot shouted, unaware of the others present._

_Claris turned around, her eyes wide but the emotion impossible to identify. Neither were able to say anything, they just grabbed each other, and stood there in each others arms for what seemed like an eternity._

_"Why didn't you tell me you were leaving?" He panted as the two slowly pulled away from each others suffocation._

_Claris looked down at her bags, "I'm not going to be **that** far away."_

_"Across the country? That's far away for me, you know."_

_Claris let out a chuckle, "Sorry. I guess I've just never been that good at goodbyes."_

_"Neither am I, I guess." Elliot admitted sheepishly. "But Bellbridge? Why?"_

_"There's a good music school there I heard, and my Grandparents offered to let me stay with them there while I study…"_

_"There's a good music school here too! A great one!" Elliot protested._

_Claris hesitated, "I… I know. I just… don't want to stay cramped up in this town forever. I want to get out there and explore! There's so much besides Twin Seeds… if I don't go now who knows if I ever will…"_

_The two locked eyes and stood in silence. Elliot didn't know how to respond to that. Now he felt like a jerk, only thinking about himself when he heard she was leaving from the music teacher at their school._

_"Then… I'm happy for you." Elliot broke the silence. Claris was rather taken aback by the sudden change of atmosphere. "I hope you learn a lot there. You're really amazing when it comes to singing, you know." He smiled._

_Claris returned the smile, but it seemed almost sad. "And you better rest up that foot of yours Mr. Basketball star, so we can both chase our dreams."_

_"Yeah…" he laughed, taking the others hand. "Call me, yeah? I wanna hear all about Bellbridge. I hear it's a pretty old and cool city, 'course nothing could beat Twin Seeds tower, right? No way Bellbridges as bright as us."_

_"Oh, of course not." Claris laughed back, "I'll probably come home for the holidays… we'll be able to hang out then!"_

_"I'm holding you to that promise you know."_

_"I know."_

_The speaker over the PA system announced that the train to Bellbridge was leaving in 3 minutes. Claris frowned._

_"Well, I should probably go then."_

_"Do you need help with your bags? I can carry s-"_

_"No… no it's fine! I can handle it." She said as she bent over to grab her things. She stood back up and gave one last smile, "Elliot… thank you. I'll see you again soon."_

_Claris swung one of her bags over her shoulder, and leaned in to kiss Elliot on the cheek._

_Elliot froze, and stood there red as Claris turned away and walked off towards her train never turning to look back. He watched her disappear into the train, and even waited until it had completely left the station before shaking back into reality._

* * *

With NiGHTS guiding her, Juliet had finally met up with her friends at the surface below, right in front of the castle where Nightmayr resides. She wasn't really sure how to react at this point. The castles build was gorgeous, but she knew what was inside would haunt her for a lifetime, and sadly this was still only the beginning.

Juliet wondered what Nightmayr would even be like. She had heard Wizeman described as huge and god-like… what if he was the same, or bigger?

"So how are we doin' this?" Will finally spouted out as Juliet touched ground, NiGHTS still dualized with the three of them.

"Should we just… walk in? If this guy's anything like Wizeman I'm sure he already knows we're here…" Helen added.

"He definitely knows we're here, especially since he's been expecting us." All three NiGHTS' crossed their arms, "no matter what this is clearly a trap."

"I say we just bust in, get Maria, and get out."

"Easier said than done you know." Helen retorted, "we already concluded it's a trap, busting in could just be suicide. Er- dream suicide? Not really sure how that would work."

"There's no telling what Nightmayr has up his sleeve, we should be cautious for sure." NiGHTS warned.

Juliet looked around the entrance for a possible solution to the current problem. There was a door that possibly led to a basement, that would be too obvious. There were windows around the towers, that could also be too obvious considering NiGHTS could fly. Every option seemed to lead to the same conclusion. It seemed everyone else thought the same.

"Maybe we're overthinking things?" Helen had pointed out. "I mean how smart and prepared do we think this guy actually is?"

"We could split up," Juliet suggested, "there's a better chance of at least one of us getting through instead of putting all our Easter eggs in one basket."

"Helen and I can go through the basement," Will stepped forward to offer. Helen looked bothered that he had offered for her, but she probably would have suggested the same anyway.

"Obviously I'll go through the tower," said NiGHTS. This was the obvious suggestion.

"So I just… walk through the front?" Juliet confirmed nervously.

"That still feels… extremely risky." Helen began pacing for a bit to figure out what they should do. She could easily dualized with NiGHTS and go with him, but that's still risky. Juliet is Nightmayr's real target after all. "Wait for us," She finally insisted, "if there's no danger we'll come and get you and we can get through together. For some reason… the nightmarens are after you, right? We should keep you out of their sight for as long as possible."

"When did you get so smart, Helen?" NiGHTS noted, grinning down at her. Finally undualizing with the three of them, "We could have used that brain before, you know."

Juliet didn't like the idea of sitting out, but Helen had a point. She agreed to the plan, but something still felt wrong.

NiGHTS had went ahead up to the towers and disappeared through the gated windows. There was no response from him which could either be good… or bad. Juliet realized Will and Helen had already left too, she was all alone now.

She walked over and crouched behind a bush that was growing up against the castle in case any Nightmarens came by. What felt like centuries had gone by and still nothing had happened. Nothing from NiGHTS, no nightmarens had come by, no noise from inside. She wondered what was even going on inside the castle. Her leg began to shake. Juliet dreaded not knowing what was happening, and not being there to help.

Juliet stood up slowly, her legs shaking immensely, and crept up to the large entrance once again. She took a deep breath and pushed them open slowly, only enough to see through the crack. All she could see were two large staircases and a large room that appeared to be empty. She pushed the door open a tiny bit more in order to squeeze herself through it.

She took a step inside, and the doors slammed behind her. The loud slam of the doors had made Juliet jump, and she lept under a large table that was up against the wall. She heard voices coming down the hall above, and she held her breath.

"Reala?" The voice growled, "I thought I told you to go to-"

"Sir," another voice, much softer than the other replied, "there is no one here."

"I heard the door, Mary! The only idiot who comes here is Wizeman's fool!"

Juliet heard steps going down the left staircase. They were clearly heels, and big ones at that.

"Perhaps it was one of your kids leaving. They do seem to act on their own agenda nowadays. I can go hunt them down if you'd like." The voice was soft again, but Juliet could hear a cruel tone underneath it.

She stayed motionless under the table, all she could see was the dim light through the table cloth. All Juliet had to go off of was the sound of their voices.

"Whatever," the other hissed, "I don't have time to worry about it. I still can't figure out how to get that sword out!"

"Maybe you're doing it wrong. Or you're just wrong."

Juliet heard a loud bang, followed by more deep growling. Something in her gut told her this had to be Nightmayr.

"Sorry, sir…" the other voice went quiet, "I didn't mean it to sound like that. But still…"

There was no reply from Nightmayr.

"I will go after whoever left, you should try once more before you give up. We have to get some use out of her otherwise sending your kids to the Waking World would've been both risky and useless."

Juliet heard the clanking of the heels grow louder, but it was impossible for her to tense up any more than she already was. She only relaxed slightly when she heard the doors slam shut.

The room was silent, and Juliet wondered if Nightmayr had left. She took a deep breath once again, and lifted up the tablecloth.

He was right there.

Crouched over, his face right there. His blank eyes staring right at her, only inches away from her own. Juliet had completely froze. She couldn't speak, her muscles wouldn't move, all her senses had completely shut down.

"This is a cute little hiding spot. You didn't think I couldn't see you though, right?" Juliet couldn't respond, she just stared wide eyed back at him. "Oh… oh you did! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make fun of you. No, no. I take that one back, truly."

Her head was spinning. She only had so much time to compose ever thought that went through her mind. Nightmayr was much… smaller than she had thought for one. He was barley even bigger than NiGHTS was, but he looked thinner… longer. He was nothing like she had imagined him. He was actually… less than she imagined. This is who was trying to catch her?

Her eyes finally broke contact with his, and she looked down down to see a broken piece of wood from the table stands. Before Nightmayr could react she grabbed it and swatted him over the head with it, just to throw him off so she could wriggle out from under the table.

Nightmayr swerved around to Juliet, now behind him and backing up towards the staircase. He slowly approached Juliet, his claws glowing several dark shades of colors. He lifted his arm up as if about to attack when something hit him in the side knocking him over. It was a chair. She looked over to see Helen and Will, out of breath and tired.

"Why the chair? You could've picked anything else and it would've been easier." Helen wheezed.

"It got the job done didn't it?" Will shouted back, "I just grabbed the first thing I saw!"

"Guys!" Juliet shouted, relieved to see the two of them, "is now really the time to do this?"

Nightmayr had regained his balance and pulled himself up. He lifted his foot and shot it down, breaking through the metal of the chair. "How many more of you brats are there?"

"Just one!" A bubbly voice called from above. NiGHTS flew himself down, landing a surprise hit on Nightmayr from above. It wasn't enough to knock him down again, but it was enough to piss him off.

He grabbed one of NiGHTS' legs and flung him across the room, his strength had slammed NiGHTS against the stone wall. Juliet began to run over to him, but something was pulling her leg as while. She looked down to see some shadow like extension from Nightmayr wrapped around her leg, and it flung her as well in the opposite direction.

Nightmayr flew up to NiGHTS and pinned him against the wall before he could react.

"So you're Wizeman's other fool, huh? Glad we could finally meet, very sad it could only be for a short time."

"Who are you?" NiGHTS demanded, he was unfazed by Nightmayr's remarks.

"Just another fool…" He whispered, grabbing NiGHTS' gem.

NiGHTS struggled to pry his claws off of it before Nightmayr could damage it. He had already begun to draw his claws along it's surface, causing NiGHTS great uncomfort.

Nightmayr felt another thud against his head.

He dropped NiGHTS, who nearly fell limp to the surface, but regained his flight in time before impact. "You lot are going to get annoying aren't you?" He shook his head.

"Where's my sister!" Will shouted from below.

Nightmayr looked taken aback, almost confused. This made Juliet concerned. He simply shrugged and floated down back to the ground, "you understand you're speaking another language, right? If you're going to be angry at me at least be valid about it."

"I think we have a lot of valid reasons to be angry with you," Helen crossed her arms. It was hard to tell when Nightmayr was being serious or not. Was this really him?

"Maria! She went missing like the rest of the kids you've taken! Where is she!"

Nightmayr seemed genuinely lost, and he began tapping his claw to his chin. "Let's see… lotta M's… Marcus, Morgan, Mary… can't say I have a Maria, though. You must have me confused with someone else."

"That's what I've been thinking…" Juliet held her head in her hands.

Nightmayr went silent for a moment as he stared at Will, who was getting even more angry by the second. He continued showing a blank, lost expression until suddenly it's as if a lightbulb went off in his dusty head. "Oh! You mean the sword!" He grinned, but went back to curious shortly after, "I didn't know she had two…"

"Hey!" A familiar voice echoed from the balcony above, "Is this thing what ya'll wanted?"

Juliet looked up, "Jolten!"

Jolten flew down with an unconscious Maria in their arms.

"Maria!" Will gasped and ran over to them. Nightmayr simply eyed the scene.

"Jolten?" Helen walked over as well, "I thought you left! Where did you even come from?"

Jolten looked down at Juliet, who was clearly happy to see her friend, "I thought you guys would need the help. I wasn't gonna jump out unless necessary but… you were all busy fighting here so I thought I'd sneak around for ya… found her a couple rooms over in a bed."

"Thank god she's okay," Will sighed, "I assumed she was working with him now."

A sudden surge of dark magic made contact with Jolten, shooting him down and sending Maria with them.

Nightmayr had broke up the gathering and started laughing, "So, Jolten. I thought I was missing something of mine. You're working for Nightopia now, huh?"


End file.
